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Flathead Man Charged with Wire Fraud in Federal Court

John Kevin Moore pleaded not guilty to charges in court on June 12

By Beacon Staff & Associated Press

A Flathead County man has been accused of stealing over $2 million from investors between 2013 and 2016.

John Kevin Moore pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and nine counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on June 12. If convicted, Moore could spend up to 40 years in prison and pay $5 million in fines.

According to court records and testimony at a 2016 show-cause hearing, Moore had established two different businesses – Big Sky Mineral Resources, LLC and Glacier Gala – and collected $2.7 million from 36 different investors. Moore allegedly made payments to earlier investments with the money from new investors.

Records suggest he spent about $1.4 million himself, including withdrawing nearly $800,000 in cash and spending more than $400,000 on mortgage and escrow payments for two homes in Bigfork.

According to documents, Big Sky Mineral Resources was created to obtain oil and gas leases and other mining-related operations. Glacier Gala was created to obtain and sell lucrative pieces of art.

State and federal began investigating Moore in 2016 and his accounts were frozen.

The Associated Press reported last year that Moore had previous convictions for defrauding a person of $75,000 in a “gold coin scheme,” defrauding someone else in the sale of a painting and for writing bad checks.