Dear Friends, In the Productions Plus/Priscilla Deters case, the cast of characters covers a range that would strain a novelist’s imagination. Consider these few: The President’s Chaplain. If anyone deserves the melancholy credit for turning Priscilla Deters loose on Friends, it is unmistakably T. Eugene Coffin. Coffin was once pastor of the East Whittier Friends … Continue reading Stranger than Fiction: The Cast of Productions Plus
by Chuck Fager Wichita, Kansas — Priscilla Deters, 63, of Walnut, California went on trial here Tuesday on 13 counts of wire and mail fraud, in connections with investment programs run by her company, Productions Plus.
Update by Chuck Fager Wichita, Kansas — Part of the more than $400,000 collected by the Cherokee Friends Church, intended for investment in a profitable business, was instead used to pay back a Quaker College in Kansas as part of a “Ponzi” fraud scheme, a Kansas jury was told today.
I “Quakers make good victims,” says Steve Schroeder.He should know; as a federal prosecutor since 1974, he’s seen enough of them. Fraud victims, that is; Quakers were a relatively new experience. In particular, the ones who quoted the Gospel to him about staying out of court.
I A plethora of lawsuits are likely to spring from Operation Islandscam, the feds’ code name for the Phil Harmon scandal. But that’s not all it is likely to produce.Last Halloween, when Phil Harmon formally entered his guilty plea, Steve Schroeder told reporters he expected there would be up to a half dozen more criminal … Continue reading Quaker $$$ Scandal Update: Will An Ex-Superintendent be Indicted?