By Cliff Peale
Enquirer staff writer

Greg Ballard and Paul Suchanek Thursday each pleaded guilty to one securities charge, ending their Clermont County trial before a jury was selected.

Ballard and Suchanek, who ran a Fort Wright company called Global Financial Strategies, each face two to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to engage in a pattern of corrupt activity. They will be sentenced Aug. 25, but prosecutors recommended four years in prison for Ballard and three years plus $50,000 restitution for Suchanek.

Both posted bond and were released.

Ballard and Suchanek are cooperating in state and federal investigations of others, including Wellington Bank and Trust, which was based on the Caribbean island of Grenada and operated by two local men, John Brinker and Gary Bentz. While it was not part of the Clermont County indictment, Ballard and Suchanek sold securities in Wellington.

Brinker and Bentz have been indicted in Ripley County, Ind., on securities charges. A federal judge last year ordered them to repay $17.4 million to investors, but little has been recovered.

Ann Womer Benjamin, director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, said prosecutors would insist on prison time for Ballard and Suchanek.

"These con artists were preying on seniors," she said. "And we are determined to make them pay."

After an indictment last August, the two men each faced 13 securities charges. State officials accused them of defrauding at least seven investors of $875,000 in retirement savings over 18 months starting in 2001. Most of the investors were in Clermont County.

Ballard and Suchanek also sold notes in an entity called Xelon Group and told the investors that returns of up to 15 percent were "guaranteed," prosecutors said. But no money was ever paid back to any investor, prosecutors said.

Ballard's planned defense was that he lost $158,000 of his money, plus more from relatives, in the investments, his lawyer, Phillip Lehmkuhl of Mount Vernon, has said.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com