By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A Butler County jury on Thursday convicted a Middletown man of 23 charges in a multimillion-dollar scheme to cheat banks and steal from investors, a case that prosecutors called Butler County's largest-ever white-collar crime case.

A jury of nine women and three men deliberated about four hours before reaching its verdict against Chad P. Copeland, concluding a trial that began Sept. 8 in Common Pleas Court.

Judge Keith Spaeth set sentencing for Nov. 20; Copeland, 37, faces decades in prison.

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Ferguson, who produced two large spreadsheets for the jury, among other documents, said the records showed a "pattern of deception" in which Copeland passed bad checks between banks to artificially inflate his account balances - and took investors' money and spent it on himself rather than investing it on his business ventures. Ferguson said the total losses in the case hover around $3 million.

Copeland's lawyer, Frank Schiavone, could not be reached for comment. He had said investors lost money because of their own bad decisions and the stock market decline that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Among the victims of Copeland's fraud: Tom and Connie Kerr of Middletown, who lost their $150,000 life savings. Ferguson said Copeland used much of the Kerrs' money to remodel a Warren County home he bought with $140,000 in stolen bank funds.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com