A onetime Iron Range businessman faces two criminal charges for a three-year scheme that swindled classic car buffs out of $1 million with false promises to restore their vintage vehicles.
Edwin S. Verdung, 26, was charged Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul with wire fraud and money laundering via information, meaning that he intends to admit to the crimes committed while he and his father, Scott Verdung, operated Memory Lane Classics. The elder Verdung, 60, has not been charged.
According to the criminal complaint:
From April 2007 through May 2010, Edwin Verdung was paid money by people in the market for classic cars or who brought their own vehicles into the shop to be restored or rebuilt. However, he allegedly failed to provide the vehicles or the restoration services as promised. In some instances, he represented falsely that he had made progress in the work.
The younger Verdung also required some customers to make "progress" payments, providing them with bogus photographs of the restoration in progress.
If convicted, Verdung faces a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud count and 10 years in federal prison on the transaction money laundering count.
Edwin Verdung has since moved to Dearborn, Mich. Last month, he was charged in Wayne County with larceny, writing bad checks and writing a check on an account that did not exist.
Sheriff's investigators say he bought a car for $9,500 in February, wrote a check for $3,300 for security deposit on a garage he rented and wrote a check for $8,300 as a down payment on a BMW. All the checks bounced. He also was in possession of a truck reported stolen in Minnesota, authorities in Michigan allege.
