Prosecution builds its case against Dancer

A bank account that William Dancer’s defense maintains he opened to legitimately conduct business for his former employer revealed that the money that came in was business-related, but the money that went out wasn’t, according to an auditor’s testimony Wednesday. 

Dancer is being tried for money laundering and embezzling from Sagle, Idaho-based Independence Home Center Inc., a manufactured home supplier.

Robert Denning, an accountant out of Kalispell, testified that of the over $400,000 worth of homebuyers’ checks that Dancer deposited into his personal bank accounts, about $237,000 was not sent to IHC’s headquarters nor used for business-related expenses.

Dancer, IHC’s former Libby branch manager, used a homebuyer’s $97,975 check to open a Libby bank account in May 2006 under the name Independence Home Center, according to testimony.

The defense said that it was natural for Dancer to open his own IHC bank account. Like a subcontractor, he paid for his own advertising, paid and staffed his Libby office, and he only received W-2 forms after the dispute came to light, according to the defense.

Line-by-line, the prosecution had Denning read through and interpret each of Dancer’s IHC account transactions, which were in a spreadsheet projected for jurors to see. Dancer’s first transaction was a $5,000 transfer to an account for his now-defunct dollar store, Smart Bucks. The second transaction was a check made out to a Libby restaurant. The third appeared to be a paycheck for a Smart Bucks employee, according to Denning.

Cash withdrawals, credit card payments, transfers to other accounts, rent on his other business’s properties and a child support check made out to his ex-wife were among questionable transactions that Denning mentioned. 

“It seemed easier to pluck out the business stuff than plucking out the personal stuff,” Denning said, pointing out that business transactions were fewer than personal ones.

Denning audited Dancer’s five personal bank accounts after IHC launched a civil lawsuit, which has since been dropped, against Dancer in October 2006.

In what Dancer’s former supervisor, Michael Brown, called a “Ponzi scheme,” Dancer allegedly deposited customer checks and then used future customers’ money to send cashier’s checks in the original customers’ name to IHC.

Dancer waited for months to send the cashier’s checks to IHC which, according to customers’ testimony, left them frustrated, wondering why their home was taking so long to be delivered and set up.

Suzi Guy, of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, testified that she called Dancer constantly for months to get an answer as to why her family paid for a home that they still couldn’t move into.

“One time he had to tell me to calm down,” she testified. “Calm down? You’re driving around in a new pickup truck – where’s our home at?!”

Guy mentioned that when she first dealt with Dancer, he had a non-descript vehicle. But later, “He drove up to my house in a brand new truck. That’s what set me off.”

Because IHC pays interest that accrues daily on lot houses, the company loses money every day that a house sits unsold. Dancer delayed sending IHC customers’ payments for months, IHC owner Darwin “Bill” Brown testified, which cost the company.

The defense is scheduled Thursday to cross-examine Denning and will also have its own auditor testify.