$1.2 million judgment against man accused in school copier scheme

From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: An Okawville, Ill., man accused of orchestrating an elaborate photocopier scam has been ordered by a judge to pay $1.2 million to Governor French Academy, a private school in Belleville, Ill. The school sued Kevin Welch, accusing him of creating a pyramid scheme of copier leases. Welch allegedly got the school to lease two copiers, and the school then signed leases for what they believed to be new machines, with payment going to Welch. When new copiers were needed, the suit alleged, Welch replaced them and said the new lease agreements nullified the old ones. But Welch neither paid off the old leases nor returned the old machines to the leasing companies. The school had said last fall that Welch's fraud could send it into bankruptcy.