According to a Springfield Leader and Press report in May 1977, Charles O. Luna was acquainted with Russell E. Phillips, the man federal prosecutors pegged as the mastermind behind a massive fraud scheme that bilked farmers in four states – Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas – out of millions of dollars. Phillips carried out the scheme under the guise of Progressive Farmers Association, which went belly up in 1977 after it filed for bankruptcy.
Around the same time, Springfield police said Luna was the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot arranged by Phillips, who was later acquitted by a St. Louis County jury. Prosecutors said Phillips hatched the plot because authorities had approached Luna – then a businessman in Branson – about testifying against Phillips in a securities fraud case pending in Arkansas.
Two Arkansas-based oil companies – Lion Oil and Continental Ozark – sued Luna in the late 1980s to recover a combined debt of more than $500,000. A judge ordered Luna to pay back the debt plus interest in both cases and later authorized both companies to garnish his assets, including all bank accounts, certificates of deposit, cash and jewelry.
In 1991, Luna was hit with another spate of litigation after he defaulted on payments to companies that had leased him trailers and equipment. One of his largest debts was owed to Washington-based Paccar Financial Corp., a company that repossessed 53 of the 54 trucks it leased to Luna.
http://www.sbj.net/weekly_article.asp?aID=97644877.2670648.977769.9597121.4681347.621&aID2=75204
Looks like the Ozarks is primed and ready for an "ENRON" type mess right here in Webster County.
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