Rosen tricked investors with dog sales business, federal indictment says

FAYETTEVILLE — Federal prosecutors believe a former Procter & Gamble executive defrauded investors of at least $ 205,000, according to an indictment unsealed this week.

Darrell Rosen, former Iams division director for Procter & Gamble and now president of a business training group in Fayetteville, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three charges of wire fraud and four charges of money laundering in U. S. District Court. Details of the case were sketchy until the indictment became available online Wednesday morning.

Rosen, 58, owned dog care businesses Rover Oaks and Mountain Creek Kennels and has experience training and selling hunting dogs, according to the document.

Rosen used this experience from 2010 to 2014 to trick people in Arkansas and Texas to invest in an unidentified “dog business” training and selling dogs to government agencies and private companies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the indictment states. It says he used false contract

documents claiming to show those buyers were interested and promised generous returns on investment “as well as many other false representations.”

If convicted, Rosen faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the fraud charges and 10 years for the money laundering charges, along with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Trial is set for May 8, and Rosen is out of custody under a $10,000 bond and other conditions.

The relatively brief indictment doesn’t identify the investors, saying only that “H. A.” gave $ 100,000 to Rosen and “E. B.” gave $105,000. It says Rosen then used $ 161,000 to purchase cashier’s checks payable to himself and three others, but it doesn’t detail what the money bought.

Rosen is represented by federal public defender Jack Schisler, who declined to comment beyond the notguilty pleas Tuesday.

Rosen worked for Procter & Gamble for almost 30 years, including a stint as business development executive at locations including Bentonville, until he retired in 2014. He’s listed as president and chief operating officer at Optimus Training & Development in Fayetteville, which offers business coaching for individuals and companies. Mel Reed, Optimus CEO, said Rosen has been a contractor for the company for about a year.

“He’s been top-notch with us, and I am very surprised,” Reed said of the case. Everyone’s innocent until proven guilty, he added, but “that relationship [ with Rosen] is being re-evaluated as we speak.”

The University of Arkansas lists Rosen as an instructor in the professional development program, but a university spokesman Wednesday said Rosen’s part-time duties were temporary and have ended.

Rosen has been accused of fraud involving several hundred thousand dollars more in several civil cases in the past few years, though the U. S. Attorney’s office in Fort Smith didn’t answer questions Wednesday about whether or how those cases are linked to the federal charges.

Rosen filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2014 in the federal district’s bankruptcy court claiming almost $3 million in liabilities, but he later waived his right to resolve, or discharge, at least some of his debts through the bankruptcy.

A court-appointed trustee, who typically combs through someone’s assets and debts after a bankruptcy filing to make sure both are accurate and then oversees the payment of the debts, claimed Rosen transferred about $ 330,000 to two business associates shortly before he filed for bankruptcy to hide the money, according to a 2015 complaint.

An acting U.S. trustee for the region earlier that year said Rosen shouldn’t be able to discharge his debt because Rosen “removed, transferred or concealed property of the estate” and hadn’t fully explained why he withdrew $630,000 in the year prior to filing for bankruptcy.

Two men, J.R. Arnold and Henry Abel, sued Rosen in Arkansas circuit courts in 2014 claiming Rosen fraudulently convinced them to invest a combined $872,000 in a German shepherd training business. Both cases were allowed to proceed despite Rosen’s bankruptcy filing with the bankruptcy court’s permission, and the pair won judgments ordering Rosen to pay back the full amount.

The men’s attorney, Jon P. Robinson of Springdale, didn’t return a message Wednesday about whether the suits are related to the federal charges or whether Rosen paid the men back.

Rosen