Global Online pair get 6 year sentence

The former owners of a La Grande company that defrauded thousands of investors out of millions of dollars were sentenced to prison Monday on money-laundering charges.

In U.S. District Court in Portland, Judge Anna Brown sentenced Larry E. “Buck” Hunter and Bryant E. Behrmann, directors of now-defunct Global Online Direct, to 72 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. They were also ordered to pay $39.2 million restitution to Global investors.

The sentence was for money-laundering crimes that stemmed from Hunter and Behrmann using Global investor funds to purchase personal residences for family members in Oregon and Nevada, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Global Online Direct was in the business of buying distressed inventory and re-selling it in flea markets, street sales, retail storefronts and online auctions.

Headquartered on Peach Road in rural La Grande, Global owned warehouses in La Grande and Union and at one time employed about 60 local workers. The company spent millions of dollars on real estate locally.

Global Online Depository, also owned by Hunter and Behrmann, raised money for the business by soliciting loans that supposedly were secured by inventory.

Federal authorities say the company promised returns on the loans of up to 1,100 percent. Investors were recruited via the Internet.

According to prosecutors, some early investors were paid with money from later investors, but most investors were not paid at all. There never was enough inventory on hand to secure the loans.

In the spring of 2007, The Observer learned that Hunter and Behrmann had both been the subjects of cease and desist orders from administrative agencies in several states. A series of newspaper articles about the company followed.

In a lawsuit filed in Georgia in 2007, federal authorities charged Hunter and Behrmann with numerous securities violations. Later, charges of fraud were added.

In June 2007, Global Online was placed in receivership. Its assets were frozen and its remaining inventory was sold at auction.

Hunter and Behrmann pled guilty to the money-laundering charges in June of this year. They are scheduled to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to begin serving their sentences on Jan. 8, 2010.

Before coming to La Grande, Global Online was headquartered in Las Vegas.

Hunter told The Observer he grew up in Union County. Behrmann, who was also known as “Judge” Bry Behrmann, had once been a magistrate judge in Idaho.

Behrmann was suspended from practicing law by the Idaho Supreme Court in 1999. He was never reinstated.

The money laundering case was jointly investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. attorneys Amy Potter and Craig Gabriel prosecuted the case.