A Criminal Troll Insulted My Wife! Every Man Has a Story

By CJ Baker World Zoom
Powell Valley Healthcare attorney blasts ‘con man extraordinaire’
Embezzling nearly $1.7 million from hospitals in Powell and Indiana — and other deceptions along the way — netted Paul Cardwell a 10-year federal prison sentence on Monday.
“Whether your intelligence and charismatic personality were corrupted by greed or pride, or some rationalization, it’s really hard for me to tell,” said U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal, shortly before giving Cardwell the 121 months in prison requested by federal prosecutors.

Judge Freudenthal called it a troubling scheme that took from hospitals that struggle to provide a vital service to their communities.
“For me, it was the escalation of the fraud in Indiana to Powell that causes me the most concern,” she said towards the end of a two-hour hearing in Cheyenne, adding “Mr. Cardwell perfected it in Indiana to such a degree that Powell Valley was quickly defrauded — much to their, I think, long-lasting detriment.
“And that detriment will be to board members that will be reluctant to agree to serve, staff members that will remain worried about their positions and their roles vis a vis the board, and the leadership by (Bill Patten, Cardwell’s successor as CEO) will in all likelihood continue to be second-guessed by the leadership within the community, which will affect his ability to lead and govern as a CEO,” Freudenthal said.
Cardwell’s prison time on the three felony counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud will be followed by three years of supervised release and he faces a $1,698,664.77 bill in restitution.
In rejecting a request from Cardwell’s attorney to give a lighter sentence in the range of 63 to 87 months, Freudenthal also noted Cardwell’s flight from prosecution: While free on an unsecured bond in July 2012, Cardwell stole a family member’s passport and fled to Thailand.
He remained at large until last June, when U.S. and Thai authorities caught up to him in Hua Hin, Thailand.
Cardwell, who appeared in standard shackles and an orange prison uniform, apologized for his actions in a statement to the court.
“I was prideful, I was arrogant and I’m a thief,” he said.
Cardwell said he was so self-absorbed and so desperate for cash after suffering losses on Thai real estate that he didn’t realize the harm he was causing to the Powell Valley Hospital community in 2011.
“I simply convinced myself that the money I was stealing through Plake and Associates was due to me because of the work I was doing,” Cardwell said. “It was not true. The money was not mine, it was not earned and I was stealing to get it.”
As for his flight from law enforcement, Cardwell said he had thought he could sneak away and arrange for a young child he’d fathered with a Thai woman to be brought to the United States.
“It just truly didn’t occur to me that I was leaving under anything other than good intentions to bring back my son, although now I realize that was both cowardly and arrogant,” Cardwell said.
Court records say that when Cardwell was arrested in Thailand, he was with a different Thai woman who was identified as his girlfriend. Freudenthal noted he did not have the child brought to the U.S.
Cardwell said Monday that he’s lost everything from his poor decisions: his family, friends, employment, home, respect, freedom and trust.
PART 2 ‪@everymanhasastory‬

Paul Cardwell testifies against former cellmate
Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2014 2:33 pm
By CJ Baker
Burlington man, a ‘sovereign citizen,’ convicted of bank fraud
Paul Cardwell was back in federal court last week — not as a defendant, but as a witness for the prosecution.
Cardwell, who’s currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for defrauding hospitals in Powell and Indiana out of nearly $1.7 million, was called to testify against a Burlington man charged with bank fraud.
Cardwell had shared a cell with Marvin Iverson while their unrelated cases were pending. On July 29, Cardwell shared some of their conversations with the jury hearing Iverson’s case.
Jury members convicted Iverson of the felony fraud count on Wednesday.
Iverson allegedly wrote a series of checks on a closed account between April and September 2012 to try paying off various debts, including a $369,300 mortgage, his Big Horn County property taxes and sales taxes for his business, Marv’s Meat Processing. One of the institutions defrauded was Big Horn Federal Savings Bank, as Iverson tendered bad checks to the bank’s Greybull and Cody branches.
Iverson opened the account in question on April 9, 2012, and closed it 10 days later, but then continued to write checks on the account.
FBI Special Agent Kent Smith said in an affidavit filed with the case that it appeared to be a scheme taught and practiced by people known as “sovereign citizens.”