Another Fraudster Hall of Fame Member
A 2017 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch began "MOBERLY, Mo. The same sorry story keeps being told here, only each decade there seems to be a different newfangled business collapsing."
It described Floyd E. Riley as the "consummate entrepreneur" and showman, who is revered as Moberly's booster and benefactor.
His diverse list of business failures ranged from cattle embryos to incinerators, retread tires to cinnamon buns, coal to catfish and heavy equipment to freshwater lobster.
Riley was released from federal custody in 2006, after serving most of a 21-month prison sentence in Marion, Ill. He'd pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and transporting property in interstate commerce. The charges stemmed from two of his earlier Moberly businesses, Global Intermark Inc. and Trans World Equipment Sales Inc.
In his cattle baron days, Riley had pleaded guilty to defrauding Merchants Bank of Boston in 1994. Riley, who had a heart condition, was sentenced to probation in that case.
No matter the business, Riley was a jet-setter, the biggest fish in a small pond. In the 1980s Riley had turned his 6,000-acre Moberly ranch into a famous north-central Missouri destination, including for national celebrities. Lee Greenwood and Gloria Estefan played there, along with Mr. Riley on the guitar, drums, piano and, of course, vocals.
During a rubber strike, he hatched a plan to buy up used tires and sell them for retreads. He invested in the nearby coal industry and tried to get a $30 million project to incinerate hazardous waste 70 miles west of St. Louis.
Eventually, airplanes jammed the Moberly airport each summer for the Heart of America Brangus Expo, featuring Riley's breed of cattle on his enormous ranch. In cooler months, buyers in tuxedos bid on livestock on ballroom display at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Kansas City.
With the catfish market evaporating, he tried freshwater lobster.
All the ideas petered out.
His final venture (from what I can see) was Worldwide Recycling Equipment Sales LLC, which "resells, rents and builds heavy machinery used in the recycling, environmental cleanup and oil and gas industries."
Worldwide filed for bankruptcy protection with a long list of creditors attached to the case and under pressure from UMB Kansas City, which had filed its own suit for payment.
On paper, Riley's wife, Rebecca, was the one tied to the business. But it was Floyd Riley, 69, who drove the big black company-issued Cadillac SUV parked in a handicapped slot in front, with a nice set of tires that haven't been paid for.
Some locals spoke highly of Riley, but some quietly questioned why a bank would lend money to a business in which he might be involved. Indeed! But UMB was where Shaun Hayes, about whom I wrote before, got his start!
America is truly the land of opportunity!