Former GM Exec Cops Plea in $83 Million Aluminum Scheme

Former GM Exec Cops Plea in $83M Aluminum Scheme

By ROBERT WOODMAN MCSHERRY, Andrews Publications Staff Writer

Former General Motors Corp. global commodity manager turned white-collar-crime fugitive Daniel J. Bealko has pleaded guilty in Chicago federal court to taking part in a bulk aluminum sales fraud scheme that cost his automaker employer $83 million.

Bealko, 48, was arrested in Liechtenstein, where he had a $3.3 million bank account after a run from the law that took him from the Caribbean islands to Europe, federal prosecutors said. He formerly lived in Clarkston, Mich.

Bealko was involved in extradition proceedings when he agreed to come back to the United States and plead guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to taking kickbacks worth $6.5 million as part of the scheme, prosecutors said.

An indictment filed in the case charged Bealko with taking bribes for unlawfully steering millions of dollars worth of bulk aluminum to Fuci Metals USA, a Northfield, Ill., bulk metal broker operated by Anthony Demetrius Brown, 48, of Highland, Park, Ill.

Detroit-based GM tasked Bealko with selling $1 billion worth of bulk aluminum in its inventory but was unaware that the sales were being made to Fuci Metals on credit and that the Northfield metals broker was a default risk, according to the indictment.

The bulk aluminum had been purchased over several years by GM's commodity options and futures traders and was being warehoused by the automaker as a hedge against higher prices.

The automaker decided to sell its inventory when market prices became favorable.

Prosecutors said Bealko took $6.5 million in kickbacks beginning in 1998 from Brown and in exchange sent the aluminum business to Fuci Metals. The Northfield metals dealer went out of business in 2003 while owing GM $83 million.

While Bealko was hiding from the FBI, Brown was making a deal with prosecutors for his cooperation in the investigation. Brown pleaded guilty in Chicago federal court Oct. 10, 2008, to one count of wire fraud. Sentencing is set for Feb. 3, 2010, according to court records. He faces a maximum 20 years in prison.

Bealko pleaded guilty Nov. 5 in the same federal court to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion for failing to pay income taxes on the bribes. As part of his plea agreement Bealko agreed to forfeit the $6.5 million to the government, which would include the $3.3 million in the Lichtenstein bank, prosecutors said.

He could get up to 25 years in prison at his Jan. 19 sentencing.