Saltville man who lied about his own death sentenced

A Saltville man who lied about his own death in order to hide assets from the federal bankruptcy court and later fraudulently assumed the identity of an attorney from Florida to further the scheme was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Abingdon to 108 months in federal prison, United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen announced.

Russell Geyer, 50, pleaded guilty in May to one count of contempt of court, one count of bankruptcy fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity fraud.

According to court documents, Geyer admitted to participating in a scheme to defraud the United States Bankruptcy Court through a series of deceptive statements designed to hide assets and maintain control of collateral.

These actions included, but were not limited to, repeatedly lying about fake medical conditions, including prostate cancer, bone cancer, cardiac issues, a brain aneurysm, and pneumonia.

On Aug. 30, 2019, the attorney working for Geyer informed the court that he had received an email purportedly from Russell Geyer’s wife, stating that Russell Geyer was dead. In fact, Russell Geyer had sent the email posing as his wife.

At a Sept. 5, 2019 hearing, Mrs. Geyer testified that her husband was alive and that neither she, nor Russell Geyer, had been out of town and in the hospital for the serious medical conditions claimed by the defendant throughout the case.

During the Sept. 5, 2019 hearing, Russell Geyer’s attorney read into the record an email he received from an attorney in Florida indicating that the Florida attorney had sold some of the assets involved in the bankruptcy proceedings without the Geyers’ knowledge.

The email further stated that he had complete control of Russell and told him to kill himself.

The attorney concluded the email with “I am on a plane out of the country.”

The investigation determined that the Florida attorney whose name was used in the email actually exists but had nothing to do with this case. Instead, Russell Geyer used the Florida attorney’s name and a bogus email account to send these emails without the Florida attorney’s knowledge.

Further investigation revealed that Geyer had assumed the Florida attorney’s identity to fraudulently obtain $70,000 from his own wife. Geyer told his wife that he was going to receive more than $1 million in a settlement from a case that the Florida attorney was handling for him.

Geyer said he needed money to pay the attorney’s fees before the money would be released.  Geyer then used a bogus email address and an app that disguised his voice to pose as the Florida attorney and to confirm that a settlement was imminent.  It was all untrue.