Former Johnstown councilman arrested on fraud charges

GREELEY – Former Johnstown Town Councilman Clair Hull and owner of Pioneer Specialty Foods LLC is accused of writing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bad checks.

Hull, 55, was arrested Thursday on 28 felony charges, including theft, fraud and forgery, between 2008 and 2009. Authorities say the fraud constituted a pattern of racketeering in violation of the state Organized Crime Control Act.

Hull was elected to his first four-year term as councilman in 2006. He was re-elected to council in 2010, but resigned before finishing his second term, according to the town of Johnstown.

In 2009, Hull deposited a $240,000 check from a woman from Antigua into his Farmers Federal Credit Union account, according to a 26-page arrest affidavit. Hull asked the credit union to wire $220,000 to a man in China, and the remaining $20,000 to people in England named in the affidavit as conspirators in the fraud.

The Englewood-based credit union lost $240,000 in the fraud when the check came back as forged. That year, Hull also tried to cash an $800,000 check from a person in Texas at the credit union. He took the check to Bank of America in Raton, N.M., when the credit union refused to cash the check.

Hull told federal agents investigating the case that he received the checks from people in various states who told him they would give him a share of the money if he cashed the checks.

Hull also submitted false invoices from meat companies to First National Bank, leading the bank to lose $189,400 when it relied on those invoices to advance money to Hull, according to the affidavit.

A phone number listed as Hull’s was busy. Hull is scheduled to appear in Weld County court May 12.

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