Fraud trial of Lucent Polymers executives set for May

EVANSVILLE, Ind.—Former Lucent Polymers Inc. executives Jason Jimerson and Kevin Kuhnash are scheduled to stand trial on fraud-related charges May 11 in U.S. District Court in Evansville.

Jimerson and Kuhnash were charged in February 2019 with fraud in relation to the sale of plastics compounder Lucent to Citadel Plastics, which was then sold to A. Schulman Inc., which now is owned by LyondellBasell Industries.

The former executives were indicted by a federal grand jury on the fraud charges and also charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

A trial originally was scheduled for May 2019, but attorneys for the defendants asked for a later trial date in order to prepare.

"Discovery in this matter is voluminous," the attorneys said in a court filing. "The government has produced to date nearly 1 terabyte of electronic material."

They added that defense attorneys "require additional time to review and digest the discovery… and to meet and confer with the government to determine whether there is a possibility of a resolution short of trial."

The indictment alleged that Jimerson and Kuhnash committed fraud when they orchestrated the sale of Evansville-based Lucent to another company but concealed critical defects in Lucent's business, including fraud that Lucent was committing on its customers. West Chicago, Ill.-based Citadel is not named in the release, but it announced its deal for Lucent in December 2013.

Citadel itself was then acquired by A. Schulman in early 2015.

In total, the indictment alleges that Kuhnash and Jimerson personally received approximately $2 million from two acquisitions of their stock. The defendants face possible sentences of five to 20 years for each count.

Schulman filed a suit against Citadel in June 2016 in relation to falsified product information. Schulman now is part of global plastics giant LyondellBasell Industries.