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Kiehl can't talk her way out of prison

"The ultimate con artist" gets five years in fraud case.

By BY ANDREW MEACHAM
Published June 2, 2007

Witnesses, who are victims of Karen Kiehl, take a group oath before Kiehl's sentencing at the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex.
	[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Chris Zuppa] Karen Kiehl before her sentencing at the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex.

TAMPA - On the day of her sentencing, Karen Kiehl had one last card to play.

As court began Friday, her public defender announced that Kiehl, 50, was prepared to repay the entire $157,000 she had defrauded from her 120 victims. The money was to come from a benefactor, Kiehl told Circuit Judge Lamar Battles.

But court officials could not identify a bank account or even a phone number for Stephen Fails, a Virginia software entrepreneur Kiehl said was helping her.

With that, Battles sentenced Kiehl to five years in prison for defrauding people in five counties, including Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas.

"You are the ultimate con artist," Battles told Kiehl as a deputy applied handcuffs. "You gave them hope when you well knew it was false hope."

Investigators say Kiehl got her victims to tell them their hopes and dreams, then promised fulfillment through government grants she said she could secure.

All they needed was faith and to pay a 1 percent commission on the grants, which ranged from $200,000 to more than $1-million.

Former clients describe Kiehl as a listener without equal, as someone who lifted their spirits and understood their struggles.

Kiehl claimed to be able to cut through the maze of grants covering everything from credit card debt to weddings to land purchases out of state.

"She's like a word processor," said Gerald Harris, 38, who with his wife gave Kiehl $3,000 for a grant to start a landscaping business. "She finds out what you're thinking and she feeds right into it."

Her victims often came in clusters as co-workers and family members told each other about the woman who could get money for anything. Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement could find no evidence that Kiehl applied for even one grant.

A parade of former clients told the judge about the money they had advanced Kiehl.

Corey Davis, a school bus driver, wanted help caring for a child with Down's syndrome, tuition for his wife's nursing school and a chance to expand their Tampa home.

Because he couldn't afford to pay Kiehl the $3,500 she required, he gave her installments on his paycheck.

Davis, 38, gave Kiehl $1,000 before learning that she was being investigated. "It's still a burden," he said.

Alice Ramirez testified for 10 friends and relatives in Hardee County who do not speak English. Members of the Apostolic Lighthouse and another Wauchula church circulated word of Kiehl's ability to get grants for migrant workers and people who had their homes damaged in Hurricane Charley.

"She was very convincing," Ramirez said. "She talked about how George W. Bush had gotten a grant."

Kiehl, who pleaded guilty, said she didn't mean to hurt anyone. "My heart is pure," she said.

Kiehl said she paid some victims back and used the rest of the money to care for herself and two adopted children. She said she gave $15, 000 to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.

Using a more complete list of victims, Kiehl offered Friday to pay all of them back, upping the total to $184,000. But during a 45-minute recess, Kiehl could not give investigators a bank account number or a phone number for Stephen Fails.

A search of Virginia corporate records revealed no listing for Fails Software Technologies, the company she said was supplying the money.

Battles told Kiehl she lacked remorse and called her excuses "not remotely credible."

In addition to her prison term, Kiehl also was sentenced to 10 years' probation and a psychiatric evaluation.

A hearing to be announced later will determine the amount of restitution Kiehl still owes her victims.

Kiehl had one supporter by her side. Ruby Swails, a former Cracker Barrel cashier, put up her home to bond Kiehl out of jail in 2006. Before Kiehl was led away in handcuffs, Swails predicted that eventually, "the truth will come out.

"God is in control," she said.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or 813661-2431.

[Last modified June 1, 2007, 23:16:54]