United States Magistrate Judge Candy Dale in Boise Tuesday ordered defendants Douglas Swenson, Mark Ellison, Jeremy Swenson, and David Swenson –- former executives of Diversified Business Services and Investments, Inc. (DBSI) of Meridian -- immediately detained while officials determine at which federal prison they will serve their sentences.
Judge Dale stated, because the defendants had exhausted their appellate rights, the Bail Reform Act no longer applied, “and the interests of justice would no longer be served by their continued release,” according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Bart Davis.
On April 14, 2014, after a 45-day trial before Chief United States District Judge Lynn Winmill, the jury found the defendants guilty of 44 counts of securities fraud. The jury further found Douglas Swenson guilty of 34 counts of wire fraud.
In August of that year, Winmill sentenced Douglas Swenson to twenty years in prison and to pay $180,632,025 in restitution; Mark Ellison to five years in prison and to pay $32,158,501 in restitution; Jeremy Swenson to three years in prison and to pay $32,158,501 in restitution; and David Swenson to also three years in prison and to pay $32,158,501 in restitution. “By loss amount, the DBSI fraud was the largest in the history of the District of Idaho,” Davis stated.
In late 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the defendants to remain released from prison pending their appeal.
In June of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the defendants’ petition for writ of certiorari, ending their appeal, the news release stated.
After Tuesday's hearing, Davis said, “We are gratified by Judge Dale’s decision to immediately detain the DBSI defendants, pending their designation to the Bureau of Prisons facilities -- that will house them for the terms of their incarceration. After four years of freedom and pursuit of their appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court, that appeal is now over and there was no basis in law for the DBSI defendants to remain released. We hope that the incarceration of the DBSI Defendants provides the victims of their crimes some degree of closure, and that restitution payments by the defendants to the victims may now commence.”
The United States Probation Office had supervised the defendants the last four years, while they were released pending appeal.
