Local woman awarded restitution for fraud

The Oregonian reports Keys helped set up a $1.1 million loan from a wealthy widow in The Dalles to an east-coast businessman. Keys didn’t tell the woman he was going to get a $150,000 kickback on the deal or that he was counting on the businessman to bail him out of several failed real estate deals.

The report said the businessman, William Kearney, was a “flim-flam man.” Before he invested in Key’s deals, he wanted cash. Keys turned to his longtime client from The Dalles, telling her Kearney was putting up treasury bonds as collateral, though he failed to tell her he’d never seen the bonds and done no due diligence.

As part of his plea arrangement, Keys agreed to pay the woman $1.1 million in restitution.