Former head of county planning commission now faces wire fraud charges

A federal grand jury today added a wire fraud charge to the indictment against Douglas Morgan, former chairman of the St. Louis County Planning Commission, who has already been charged with a $1.5 million bank fraud scheme.

The wire fraud charge against the 65-year-old Chesterfield man asserts that Morgan defrauded a longtime friend, identified only as J.T. in the indictment, by claiming he held secret interests in casino projects between 2002 and 2010. One of those was the project by North County Development, formerly known as Camco Development, to develop 377 acres of land in north St. Louis County into a casino resort.

J.T. invested roughly $1.5 million with Morgan based upon Morgan’s claim of ownership and the false representations that the funds would be used for the casino project developments in exchange for half of Morgan’s interest in the developments, according to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Morgan also secured an additional $200,000 loan from J.T. and a total of $250,000 from three other longtime friends. To get those loans, the federal prosecutors said, Morgan falsely represented that funds he held in personal trust accounts had been seized by the government. Morgan also told at least one person that the money was for his part of the gaming license application for the proposed North St. Louis casino development.

Morgan was indicted in April for bank fraud. According to federal prosecutors, Morgan submitted false and deceptive personal financial statements to obtain a series of loans from Commercial Bank from 1999 through 2010. He had about 15 loans in his own name and personally guaranteed loans in his children’s names. The outstanding balances on those loans total about $1.5 million.