It was announced by U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler of the Justice Department today that two Fairbanks residents were charged with nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of theft from a local government receiving federal funds.

According to the Justice Department, between December, 2009 and November 2012, 57-year-old Alfred R. “Bear” Ketzler and 62-year-old Alfred McQuestion Fabian committed the crimes mentioned in the indictment.

Alfred Ketzler, during that time, worked as the City Manager for the city of Tanana. As the City Manager, Ketzler was responsible for managing city property, which included excess and surplus property that the city obtained from the Federal government. As one of his duties, he was to allocate these surpluses to areas of the city government of Tanana as needed.

Alfred Fabian worked for the city of Tanana as well, he worked in a position of expediter for Tanana. His job was to store and transport city property, which included the federal surpluses and excesses from the Federal government.

According to the indictment, the two schemed to defraud the city of Tanana of federal government property that was allocated to the city. Ketzler, who did a majority of his work as Tanana city manager in the city of Fairbanks, was not informing the mayor or the city council of Tanana about government property coming in on their behalf. Then, Fabian would transport and store the federal property at locations around Fairbanks, including his own home.

It was that federal property that the two were selling off to Alaska businesses and individuals and pocketing the proceeds for themselves. According to documents, the two men sold off items such as forklifts, trucks, bulldozers, as well as other industrial equipment. In most cases, the buyers of the properties would write a check to Ketzler which he would then deposit in his personal bank account.

In some cases, Ketzler would tell the buyers that the property belonged to the city of Tanana and that he was selling it on the city’s behalf. He then took the proceeds from the sale and deposited the funds into his personal accounts, after which he would write a check to Fabian or make a deposit in Fabian’s personal bank account.

The indictment also stated that both Ketzler and Fabian converted excess federal property to their own use which they would then sell off using third parties.

According to court documents, the two men received at least $122,100 in illegal payments for the sale of the federal property that was earmarked for Tanana. Also, the property they converted to their own use was valued at $3,650. The actual acquisition value of the property was $984,390.

The FBI has identified numerous sales of federal property by the two men, and while some of the sales are believed to have been conducted with authorization of the city of Tanana, many of the sales did not have the proper authority.

The FBI is asking anyone that bought items from either Fabian or Ketzler to contact them to assist the city of Tanana and the Office of the Inspector General in identifying all the sales that occured. According to the FBI, buyers of said federal property will not be considered suspects in the case and that the property that they purchased will not be seized as they believe the buyers considered the sales to be legitimate.

Please call the FBI at (907) 452-3250 or (907) 276-4441 and ask to speak to Special Agent Sutherland if you have information about a sale or purchase of this federal surplus property.