Judge cuts bond in securities fraud case-WEB ONLY

A woman charged with defrauding clean-coal project investors of more than $2.5 million will be released from jail after a judge significantly lowered her bond.

A Marion County judge agreed today to allow 50-year-old Dorothy Geisler-Tragardh’s release on a $50,000 surety and $30,000 cash bond, down from a $1 million cash bond. Defense attorney Mark Inman said his client’s parents will post the bond.

A spokesman for the Marion County prosecutor’s office says Geisler-Tragardh will either be released from the Marion County Jail on this afternoon or Wednesday.

Prosecutors last week filed securities fraud and theft charges against her in what investigators call a complex stock-swapping scheme to keep investments in a coal-gasification plant.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Geisler-Tragardh sold 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.

Geisler-Tragardh was arrested March 19 on one charge of securities fraud and three counts of theft, all Class C felonies.

Praxis was a company formed in September 2006 by Geisler-Tragardh 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 the probable cause affidavit.

The charges were filed a day after Marion Superior Court Judge Patrick McCarty froze Geisler-Tragardh’s assets, including Picasso artwork, a luxury waterfront home, a Rolex watch, a diamond, a Mercedes Benz and two other cars and a boat.

The case also involves Chris and Jan Marten, the owners of jewelry business J.S. Marten Inc. in Carmel.

Geisler-Tragardh was fired from Praxis on Feb. 10. Court papers say she deposited money from the stock sales into an account at Symphony Bank in Carmel, where co-defendant Jan Marten was one of the founding board members.

The account paid $752,618 to Geisler-Tragardh, according to the complaint filed by state Securities Commissioner Chris Naylor. An additional $75,000 went to Jan Marten, $25,000 to the Carmel jewelry business, and $11,475 to her husband and co-defendant, Chris Marten, whose assets also were frozen by McCarty.

The complaint alleged Geisler-Tragardh hired Chris Marten as a consultant for Praxis, and the two sold shares of the $56 stock, but distributed shares of the cheaper stock.

State prosecutors charged the Martens with tax evasion last October, saying they failed to remit $875,230 in retail sales tax to the state over three years. That case is pending, and the assets of J.S. Marten Inc. have already been frozen.

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