Hamilton County woman to be sentenced in stock scheme

The Indiana Secretary of State’s securities division has reached an agreement to liquidate the assets of a Hamilton County woman set to be sentenced Wednesday afternoon for defrauding investors of nearly $2 million.

Dorothy Geisler, 52, sold Class A stock in a clean coal energy company called Praxis Resource Partners LLC at $56 a share but represented them as Class B shares. She failed to tell investors that as Class A shares, they had little or no value.

Geisler then diverted the difference into an Indianapolis bank account for personal expenses, including the purchase of a home on Geist Reservoir, the securities division said Tuesday in announcing the agreement.

The liquidation, initiated by an asset freeze filed in a Marion County civil court by the securities division in March 2009, involves assets of more than $1 million.

Besides the home, additional items to be liquidated, with proceeds benefitting the victims of the scheme, include a Picasso lithograph, Waterford crystal glasses, fur, jewelry and a boat.

Geisler is scheduled to be sentenced at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Marion Criminal Court.

She pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, a Class C felony, which typically carries a sentence of two to eight years.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 14 counts of theft, a Class D felony, and two counts of forgery, a Class C felony.

In January, Judge Robert Altice said during a hearing that Geisler’s plea carries a sentence of one year of home detention and four years of probation, in addition to 400 hours of community service and victim restitution in the amount of $1.9 million.