Hamilton County woman pleads guilty to securities fraud

A Hamilton County woman arrested in March 2009 for allegedly defrauding investors of nearly $2 million accepted a plea agreement on Wednesday that likely will allow her to avoid jail time.

Dorothy Geisler, 52, is accused of selling Class A stock in Praxis Resources Partners LLC at $56 a share but represented them as Class B shares and failed to tell investors that as Class A shares, they had little or no value.

Praxis was a company formed in September 2006 by Geisler and partners W.C. Perryman III and Edward N. Flynn to develop a coal-gasification process in eastern Texas. Perryman and Flynn were not involved in the alleged fraud, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Geisler 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.

Geisler is scheduled to be sentenced at 3 p.m. Feb. 2 in Marion Criminal Court.

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

Formal sentencing was delayed a week to give victims an opportunity to address the court. None were present at the hearing.

“This case provides another clear example that illegitimate actors who violate Indiana securities laws end up as convicted felons,” Indiana Securities Commissioner Chris Naylor said in an e-mailed statement.

The Secretary of State’s office now will move forward with its civil suit involving the freezing of her assets, to “remove her from her home so that it and other ill-gotten gains will be liquidated and returned to the investors she deceived,” Naylor said.

Original charges against Geisler in March 2009 came a day after Marion Superior Court Judge Patrick McCarty froze her assets, including Picasso artwork, a luxury waterfront home, a Rolex watch, a diamond, a Mercedes Benz and two other cars and a boat.

Geisler was fired from Praxis in February 2009. Court papers say she deposited money from the stock sales into an account at Symphony Bank in Carmel.

Court documents said at least 10 individuals paid money to Geisler, investing amounts ranging from $22,400 to $1 million.