• CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- The last of five defendants charged with defrauding investors of more than $4 million by promoting non-existent wind farm projects in Wyoming and South Dakota pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges.
• Robert Arthur Reed, of Salt Lake City, pleaded guilty in federal court in Casper to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Four other co-defendants have entered earlier guilty pleas to various charges.
• Prosecutors charged that Reed and the others used personal aliases as well as the company names of Mountain State Power Group, Mountain State Power and Sovereign Energy Partners.
• An indictment alleges that they hired phone solicitors to make cold calls to investors, urging them to invest in wind farms by falsely claiming they were being constructed jointly by private investors and the U.S. government.
• The indictment lists victims only by their initials and prosecutors have declined to identify them. It states that victims were told that they had to make a minimum investment of $25,000 and that they sent in a total of about $4.3 million.
• U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl set sentencing for Reed for Aug. 1. Each of the charges that Reed pleaded guilty to carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, according to court records, and prosecutors have indicated they intend to ask the judge to impose prison time.
• Prosecutors agreed to drop seven other charges against Reed at sentencing in exchange for his guilty plea. He had been scheduled to go to trial in Casper next month.
• Kip Crofts, U.S. attorney for Wyoming, declined comment after Tuesday's hearing, his office said. An attempt to reach Reed's defense lawyer, Eric Palen of Glendo, for comment after the hearing wasn't successful.
• According to court records, Reed and other defendants had acquired land near Casper and in Butte County, S.D., to satisfy investors that projects were moving forward. Prosecutors say the defendants put up signs at the South Dakota site and took pictures of contractors they hired to push dirt around to make it appear construction was ongoing.
• "The defendants used these pictures to lull unhappy Mountain State Power/Sovereign investors and entice new victims," prosecutors wrote.

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