Charged creamery owners accused of separate crimes

PALMER — With one former owner of Matanuska Creamery set to go on trial in two weeks and a second charged with federal crimes on Friday, a side-by-side comparison of the cases shows each is accused of mostly different malfeasance.

The trial for Kyle Beus, 49, on charges of wire fraud and lying to a federal agency is set to start Sept. 16 in federal court in Anchorage.

Beus is alleged to have engaged in activity that involved moving funds between the creamery, another company he owned and a third company that installed coolers at the creamery.

When all was said and done, prosecutors allege federal money meant to pay the creamery’s bills ended up being used for Beus’ “personal and discretionary use unrelated to the construction and management of the dairy processing facility,” according to a federal indictment.

He’s also charged with lying to the USDA to get grant money in documents submitted in January and March 2008.

That part is the closest his case comes to that of former Matanuska Creamery CEO and manager Karen Olson, who also is charged with lying to the USDA to get a loan for the creamery. Her fraudulent statements, though, were allegedly made in November 2008.

Olson also is charged with wire fraud and mail fraud in connection with an application to the state Division of Agriculture for a $430,000 loan the creamery eventually received.

The fraudulent documents, according to the charges, include:

• A Sept. 30, 2008, letter to the state Board of Agriculture trying to get a creamery loan on an upcoming agenda.

• A Nov. 12, 2008, fax providing “loan supplementals” for the application.

• A Nov. 12, 2008, email that included an attached spreadsheet identifying recipients of payments titled “Valley Dairy Inc., Payables Associated with Construction, Fixtures and Installation.”

The final charge against Olson is simple: she lied to cover up what Beus’ alleged wrongdoing.

Olson has denied she did anything wrong, saying that everything on the applications was true to her knowledge.

“Matanuska Creamery, its customers, employees, member farmers and investors have been the losers over the past six years,” she said in an emailed statement to the Frontiersman Saturday evening. “Perhaps these indictments will become the vehicle for setting the record straight.”

In addition to that $430,000, the creamery also received a $200,000 loan from the state in 2008. The loans were eventually the instrument by which the whole enterprise collapsed. Asked for more time to repay them, the state instead recalled the loans, taking possession of the creamery and liquidating its assets to pay toward the balance due.

Olson was not arrested when she was charged. Contacted Saturday, she said she hadn’t seen the charges, nor had any attorneys contacted her to tell her she’d been charged.

As of Monday, the federal court schedule shows she is set to make her first court appearance Sept. 19 in Anchorage.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.