Man agrees to refund $2 million to local investors

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A former Newton County man has agreed to pay $2 million to local investors who accused him of luring them into a complicated Ponzi scheme.

Ulys Randall Riner, formerly of Covington, pleaded guilty to selling unregistered promissory notes as securities, his attorney, Anthony Cochran, said Friday morning.

As part of the agreement, Riner will pay the $125,000 in a lump sum in 60 days, and then an additional $2,000 a month, Cochran said. He faces no additional fines on top of that, Cochran said, and will serve no prison time.

Should Riner come into any additional money, through an inheritance, for example, he will apply that to his payments, Newton County District Attorney Ken Wynne said.

"Our goal is to try and get as much money back to the victims as possible. Some of these victims are in need of the money, of course," Wynne said Friday. "I think the victims were pleased with this result."

The investors will be paid based on a percentage of the amount they gave Riner. Some payments ranged from $2,000 to $650,000, court records show. The total amount was $4.5 million.

"It's good to come to a conclusion. The cases of this nature are very labor intensive," said Riner, who thanked the Georgia Secretary of State's securities unit for their help in the investigation.

Riner was arrested in 2006 after being accused of selling fraudulent promissory notes to 21 Georgians, mostly friends. Riner, who goes by "Randy," was using a financial strategy called "factoring" and used money from investors to buy accounts receivables on government contracts at a discount.

He promised the investors a full return on their money once those contracts were up.

Riner sold the investors promissory notes through his company, Express Factors, which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002, court records show.

Riner took the money and passed it to other businesses. When those businesses failed, he used money from new investors to cover up the losses, according to court records.

A Newton County grand jury indicted Riner in March 2006 on 29 counts related to the sale of unregistered investments. He was set to stand trial on Monday but entered a guilty plea Friday.

The judge dismissed two additional charges: theft by taking and theft on alleged securities fraud, Cochran said Friday. Riner will be on probation for 17 years and will be in a work-release program for two years.

Riner lives in Watkinsville and is a practicing physician's assistant. Cochran said the judge also granted Riner "first offender" status, which will aid in him keeping his medical license.

"We've waited for seven-and-a-half years for him to go to trial," said Laney Crowder, one of the Covington residents who has accused Riner of stealing from them. "We got a call (Wednesday) saying he's ready to plead guilty."