Former Billings bank executive denies federal charges in blackmail, fraud case
A former Billings bank executive is denying charges he defrauded his employer, laundered money and blackmailed his way into real estate deals.
Stephen Phillip Casher, 45, pleaded not guilty to the charges in U.S. District Court on Thursday.
The case is the latest in a string of legal actions tied to Larry Price Jr., a coal magnate who faces up to 85 years in prison after stealing millions of dollars from three companies and lying to federal investigators over his own staged abduction.
Price owes $11 million to a limited liability company Casher co-founded with two others called Three Blind Mice. The company is a non-regulated lender whose sole transaction has been a $7.5 million loan to Price for a coal mine upgrade in Pennsylvania that never happened.
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