BREAKING: Premier’s White charged with 3 felonies

The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office on
Monday filed three felony charges against Christopher P. White, the founder of bankrupt development firm Premier Properties
USA Inc.

The charges include
fraud on a financial institution, check fraud and theft-all Class C felonies stemming from a $500,000 bad check that authorities
say White deposited into an account with The National Bank of Indianapolis in January.

The check was drawn on an account at JP Morgan Chase that never
had a balance of more than $1,000, the prosecutor’s office said. After depositing the check, White allegedly withdrew most
of the proceeds, apparently so he could make payroll.

White, 50, will be arrested and faces an initial hearing later this week, said Matthew Symons,
a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Symons said the investigation is ongoing and declined to comment further on the case. An attorney for White could
not be identified.

A probable
cause affidavit describes how the bad check put White into overdraft: The $500,000 check was deposited Jan. 30 into an account
in the name of a White holding company, Reffco II LP.

That same day, White had $425,000 transferred from the Reffco account into an account in the name
of Premier Properties. Hours later, all but about $5,000 had been wired to payroll services company ADP, in three separate
transactions.

The National
Bank of Indianapolis learned on Feb. 4 that the check was bad, the documents show. White opened the Chase account in the name
of HPT LLC in December 2007.

A
list of state’s witnesses includes bank officials and Christi Minars, Premier’s controller for two years.

Premier, the developer of Metropolis mall in Plainfield
and several other retail projects across the United States, is being liquidated in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.

Financial and legal troubles began to mount for Premier
and White last year as credit markets froze up. The 15-year-old company had built a reputation for taking on daring projects
with little margin for error.

To read the probable cause affidavit,
click here.