This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Once accused of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme, onetime Utah County real estate investment guru Rick Koerber may again face charges.

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the giant fraud case against Koerber could be reinstated, reversing an earlier ruling by another judge.

U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish issued an order that potentially could lead to new charges against Koerber, who previously faced 18 counts related to his operation over the past decade of a real estate investment operation that prosecutors had alleged took money from new investors to pay off earlier ones.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups had dismissed the case against Koerber in 2014 because of violations of the Speedy Trial Act, which requires a case to go to trial within 70 days of charges being filed unless the court makes specific findings about exceptions allowed under the law.

Waddoups cited "the government's pattern of neglect and dilatory conduct" as well as "several instances of questionable ethical conduct in prosecuting this case" in dismissing it with prejudice. That meant the case — one of the largest alleged financial frauds in Utah history — could not be filed, a huge blow to the U.S. attorney's office.

Prosecutors appealed Waddoups' ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which in January upheld the dismissal based on the Speedy Trial violations but sent the case back to federal court in Salt Lake City with the order to re-examine two aspects of Waddoups' ruling on the question of prejudice.

After the 10th Circuit decision, Waddoups recused himself from the case and it was assigned to Parrish.

In re-examining the reasons for the delays, Parrish said she found that Koerber and attorney Marcus Mumford also had significantly contributed to the delays in getting to trial.

"From the very beginning of the case, Mr. Koerber resisted deadlines and showed no interest in proceeding to trial," Parrish wrote.

She cited at least six Koerber motions to extend deadlines, the fact that he had never objected to numerous postponements of a trial and delays in filing pretrial motions. Those included waiting for almost five years to file a dismissal motion on the Speedy Trial motions.

Parrish said she weighed the seriousness of the offenses Koerber had been charged with against the impact of reprosecution on the administration of the Speedy Trial Act and on the justice system, and those factors were weighted toward dismissal with the possibility of refiling charges.

"Mr. Koerber is accused of having defrauded millions of dollars from countless individuals," Parrish wrote. "There is a strong public interest in having such serious charges adjudicated on the merits."

Parrish did not make a part of her ruling the alleged government misconduct that Waddoups had found.

Prosecutors will study the order, said U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch, and weigh their options before deciding whether to seek a new indictment.

Mumford said late Thursday that he will consider an appeal and that it was "dispiriting" to have a judge "mischaracterize the efforts of Mr. Koerber's spartan legal team to obtain a fair trial for Mr. Koerber as if those efforts justify the government's strategic delays depriving him of a speedy trial."

"Ultimately, and as Mr. Koerber said from the beginning of this case," Mumford said in an email, "we will hold to account these corrupt government officials who conspired in the shadows of the law to persecute Mr. Koerber and his family with false and unsupported allegations."

Koerber ran a series of entities grouped around his Franklin Squires Cos. and Founders Capital, through which he taught a real estate investment strategy called "equity milling" and took in about $100 million in investments by telling potential investors they could earn 2 percent to 5 percent per month.

Indictments alleged that Koerber's enterprise was not making money and that he had used about $50 million of investor moneys to repay other investors to make the operation appear profitable.

In addition, he allegedly spent some of the investor funds for personal uses, including $850,000 to buy restaurants, more than $1 million to purchase luxury cars, about $5 million to finance a movie and about $425,000 to mint coins.