Con artist admits bilking 447G from turkey farmer

A con man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal district court to bilking a Nebraska turkey farmer of almost $450,000 in connection with a scheme to invest in bogus real-estate projects in Miami Beach and in Biloxi, Miss.

Bryan Edward Enders, 27, now living in York Haven but formerly of West Chester, admitted that he took money from the farmer, Bruce Karges, and four others, by "misleading them into false real-estate claims."

The government's plea memo said that Enders used the money he stole to fund a lifestyle as a professional gambler, which included traveling to places like Cabo, Aruba and the Bahamas and racking up $135,000 of expenses in nightclubs, strip clubs, spas, country clubs and casinos.

He faces from 27 to 33 months behind bars under preliminary advisory sentencing guidelines, the government said.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis set sentencing for Nov. 16. (Enders, who is free on $25,000 unsecured bond, has agreed to make restitution of almost $500,000 to Karges and his other victims, prosecutors said.)

The government's plea memo said Enders began dating Elizabeth Karges, Bruce Karges' daughter, in 2005 while he was living in Los Angeles.

After being introduced to her father, Enders persuaded him in September 2005 to wire $30,000 to Enders' bank account. The money was for Karges' stake in a partnership purportedly building condos in the South Beach section of Miami Beach.

It was a sham. After the purported condo construction was complete, Enders told Karges that he and other partners in the deal each made from $10,000 to $15,000.

Enders then convinced Karges to pony up $45,000 (the initial investment plus the profit) in a real-estate project in Biloxi, court papers said.

Authorities said that Enders advised Karges that a full share in the Biloxi deal would cost $90,000 and that Karges wired more than $47,000 from his Nebraska account to Enders' bank account on Jan. 4, 2006.

A few months later Enders told Karges the investors had another opportunity to invest in a restaurant in Biloxi for $75,000 a share. Karges wired the money to Enders on March 14, 2006.

The plea memo said that during the scheme, which lasted from August 2005 until May 2008, Karges sent about 19 wires or checks totaling $447,249 for "investments" with Enders.

Authorities said that Enders never created any partnerships and that documents Enders gave to Enders purporting to be contracts were phony. Enders created e-mail accounts in the names of his father (who had no involvement with his son's fraud) and a fictitious accountant to convince Karges there were other investors in the purported real-estate deals, the feds' plea memo said.

When Karges became suspicious and demanded to talk with someone besides Enders about his investments, Enders bought a computer program and voice manipulator from which he would call Karges, pretending to be the accountant, to discuss the investments, the plea memo said.