Grand Rapids, Michigan – June 5, 2007 – United States Attorney Charles R. Gross announced that Geraldine Watson was sentenced in U.S. District Court today in connection with a guilty plea she entered on February 26, 2007. Watson, age 77, pled guilty to making a false statement to a firearms dealer in connection with the purchase of a gun on November 22, 2004, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(a)(6). Federal law prohibits making material false statements by a gun purchaser in connection with the purchase of a gun and permits a maximum prison sentence of ten years, plus other penalties. As part of her plea hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, Watson admitted to buying the gun for her son, CyberNET CEO Barton Watson, who was prohibited from purchasing or possessing a gun in his own right because of a prior felony conviction. Barton Watson committed suicide using this gun the day after Geraldine Watson purchased it for him, and on the heels of the collapse of CyberNet. In return for her plea, other charges implicating Geraldine Watson in the CyberNET fraud scheme orchestrated by her son were dismissed as part of today’s proceeding.

At the sentencing hearing today Chief Judge Robert Holmes Bell was authorized to send Watson to prison, but instead imposed a sentence of two years probation, including a year of home detention, and a $1,000 fine. In deciding not to send Watson to prison Chief Judge Bell relied upon the fact that Watson suffers from several degenerative diseases, and likely will require nursing home care in the near future. In response to the sentence, United States Attorney Gross stated: “I am well-satisfied with the resolution of this case, in light of the defendant’s age, medical conditions, and the less culpable role she played in the CyberNET conspiracy. She deserved to be punished, and the sentence handed out by Chief Judge Bell suits that purpose.”

The next and final chapter of the CyberNET prosecution is the trial of defendants Krista Kotlarz Watson and Paul Wright, currently scheduled for September.

This investigation was conducted by the Grand Rapids Offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

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