My neighbor attorney just called me and sent me this. Yesterday the jury in the John Rimmasch criminal trial returned guilty verdicts against Rimmasch and WRRC on all counts. Attached is the court's minutes of this.

Sentencing is set for July 5. My attorney neighbor tells me that each charge is a "category 4" crime, which means 0-6 years, and it's unlikely the sentences will be "stacked" consecutively.

My neighbor attorney predicts 1-2 years in prison, a hefty fine, and a 18-24 months of supervised release. In federal prison, there is no parole. The company will likely have to forfeit money, if it can be found.

Well it certainly is not something to celebrate when a fellow who shares our love for all things "train" ends up heading for prison.

He is still a relatively young man so let's hope he'll reflect on what got him here, have the courage to address those issues and change so that he can find a productive, rewarding law abiding way forward.

Ross Rowland

Nah. I'll celebrate a criminal getting his just reward. The charges were largely based on him KNOWINGLY doing what he did. No sympathy here

Well said and a sentiment that I believe anyone who was on the receiving end of Mr. Rimmasch's antics would share.

Jason Midyette

This appeared on LinkedIn in the last few days:



In Alaska, a locomotive that ten years ago Wasatch touted as "ready for a match", is in the final stages of an extensive and long rebuilding. In Kentucky, a locomotive sits unfinished, with expensive (and worthless) "repairs".

Due diligence, people. Ask around. Research things. It's not difficult.

Howard P.

I can't picture jail time on something this small. This only dealt with the asbestos issue, not the whole $800K project which to me is quite small as well. I have seen a whole lot worse, measured in millions, with maybe a 3 year sentence.

The judge has a lot of discretion within the guidelines. Since it was public money, I suspect the sentence may be harsher than had he defrauded a private individual. An employee for the government agency I represent got a long time in federal prison for simply lying to the FBI, with no underlying federal crime. He had a concrete contractor pour his driveway and bill the agency. No federal money was used, but nonetheless he lied during the investigation. Got five years as a result.

An attorney that works for me as his "retirement job" had a long career as an attorney in the aerospace industry. He saw similar low dollar cases result in prison time if an individual over-billed or fraudulently billed the government. It may seem disproportionate, but the government really gets aggravated when you defraud it, or attack its property.

My guess is that he likely rejected a plea deal from the government that involved no jail time, and now risks it as a consequence of going to trial.

There's a report prepared by the Bureau of Prisons recommending a sentence. We will get an idea soon enough of what's at play.

The kid is resilient, isn't he?

It is interesting that the company that hired John has the same initials that he does...

It's a way to earn a living, and someone somewhere will hire him.

Wow, I felt a tinge of sympathy until I saw the LLC notice.

But in fairness, it's the split between knowledge and business. What I saw consistently was a tendency to get a job by underbidding and underestimating on fixed-price jobs, and work it all out later. You end up leveraging the last job by getting the next one, it's essentially an unintended pyramid scheme that means you have to cut costs where you know you shouldn't just to survive rather than setting up offshore banking accounts. Mix that with good communication and PR skills - which he has - and that can set up a pattern. Don't confuse that with the genuine enthusiasm for a trade, or even legitimate skills, and it doesn't make you evil by intent, either. Not fair.

This is a particularly horrible business to get locked into fixed-price contracts, but so many public funds sources insist on it it's hard to know when to jump in or walk away. I think almost every project that's run into trouble here would be categorized as that. If you have a long-term memory, that's not unlike what got Rader Railcar, and maybe Iowa Pacific, not the enthusiasm or vision. The problem is the damage left behind, because that impacts just about everyone related to rail preservation, however inadvertent.

And as one of those 'awful consultants' (Kelly) here's a thought. You have to bid on those jobs too, trust me. It doesn't necessarily get better on that side of the street.

Present company excepted of course!

Of course Randy, I realize that you are rightfully concerned that Stone Consulting will be driven out of business by the rock bottom prices and bullet proof advice offered by JER LLC. You might want to freshen up your resume... [sarcasm][/sarcasm]

So, how is the WRRC bankruptcy coming along? Eventually there will be an auction, and here's what I expect to see:

The bankruptcy judge will first open a sealed bid from JER LLC for a ridiculously low amount. Then, when the judge opens bidding from those assembled in the courtroom, the first bid will be for an outlandishly high amount, and no one else will bid. That high bidder will subsequently disappear and abandon his bid, and the judge will award the estate, free and clear of all debts, to JER LLC, and the guy will be back in business. I've seen this happen before.

If sealed bids for a ridiculously low amount are allowed, I'm sure there will be other "bottom feeder" bids from scrap companies.

You don't think he'd have the nerve to create a new LLC and then have that new LLC hire him, do you??

That would be rather under handed I would think.

Let's see what we can find out about the new firm. More later.

Ross Rowland

The bankruptcy case was dismissed without a discharge of any debts. That means there were no assets to distribute. A bank that held the mortgage on the car repair facility had a security interest on any assets with nothing left over. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of assets to begin with, most things were leased or rented. The schedule of property included tools that looked like they came from Harbor Freight. The dismissal meant his bankruptcy attorneys didn’t get paid to the tune of $65k and the trustee himself didn’t get paid to the tune of about the same amount.

Further the company itself was also convicted. That means that a hefty fine will likely also be assessed against it. Rimmasch, even if he isn’t facing jail time will likely get hit with a fine.

I don’t see JER, LLC sneaking in to buy anything because there’s nothing to buy really. The bank will try to get maximum value to recover their loss and the rest of the “assets” probably aren’t worth getting. Then, there’s the reputational damage John did to himself.

I just do not see a clever way out of this.

My search so far has not been able to find an LLC with the JER name in Wyoming or surrounding states. I'll keep looking.

Appreciate Mr. Wilkins explanations.

Ross Rowland