The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

January 5, 2009

Former banker has sentence reduced in cattle scam

Christian M. Giggenbach

A federal judge has ordered a reduction in the prison sentence of a former bank president involved in a Greenbrier County banking and cattle scandal because he assisted the United States with evidence against other individuals.

Charles A. Henthorn, 48, was sentenced in October to nine months in prison for his guilty plea to accepting nearly $10,000 in bribes from the central figure in the scandal, Kevin Scott O’Brien. Henthorn is currently incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa.

Henthorn’s attorney had sought the sentence reduction in a Dec. 5 motions hearing in federal court in Beckley in front of U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.

The U.S. attorney approved the motion, stating Henthorn had “assisted in the ongoing investigation of another individual who is presently the target of, among other things, a bankruptcy fraud investigation that is connected with the Kevin O’Brien bankruptcy filings.”

In his Dec. 22 order, Johnston wrote, “Upon careful consideration of the arguments presented at the hearing, the court has determined that (Henthorn’s) assistance to the United States merits a one-level guideline sentence reduction. To reflect the reduced offense level, (Henthorn’s) term of imprisonment shall be reduced from nine months to seven months.”

Prosecutors previously said Henthorn was also instrumental in fingering former First National Bank board member G. Thomas Garten. Henthorn wore an undercover wire which recorded Garten admitting to breaking the law.

Garten was sentenced to five months in prison for helping set up the bribes given to Henthorn by O’Brien. Garten reported to the Morgantown Federal Correctional Institution on Nov. 25 and is expected to be released in April.

O’Brien, 28, was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison in October for bilking millions out of investors using Ponzi and phantom cattle schemes in West Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Virginia and Nebraska.

O’Brien is incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer County.

O’Brien has also filed for a reduction of his sentence based on giving evidence to the United States, but a hearing date has not been scheduled.

Although Henthorn’s prison is listed as a high security facility, an adjacent satellite prison camp houses minimum security offenders.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site, of the 202,171 inmates currently locked up, only 927 inmates (or 0.5 percent) were convicted of banking, insurance, or embezzlement crimes. Drug offenses topped the list at 52 percent.

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