Former track owner seeks plea bargain

Attorneys for Dick Boushka, federal prosecutors ironing out agreement

? Longtime Wichita businessman and former race track owner Dick Boushka is working out a plea agreement on dozens of federal fraud charges.

Boushka plans to appear in court Monday, one day before a judge was to begin hearing his case.

A grand jury indicted Boushka, 68, in May. He is charged with 48 counts of bank fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy.

Boushka’s lawyer, Steve Joseph, confirmed that he and prosecutors were negotiating a plea agreement. He would not disclose details.

“There’s still a lot of negotiating going on,” Joseph said.

Prosecutors say Boushka falsified loan documents to bilk American Bank out of $19 million. Hillcrest Bank bought American Bank in 1999.

Boushka repeatedly has declined to comment about the case. He did not return a call to his home.

Although lawyers still are ironing out the agreement, Joseph said he was glad the case was headed in that direction.

He said defense lawyers and prosecutors both were in trouble any time they went to trial because “someone else gets to decide what’s going to happen.”

Boushka came to Wichita in 1955 to play basketball for the Vickers oil and gas company, which had a team in the National Industrial Basketball League. He eventually ran Vickers Energy Corp. and also developed the Brittany Center shopping center in Wichita and The Woodlands race track in Kansas City, Kan.

He earned a gold medal in basketball at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, playing on the same team as NBA legend Bill Russell.

One of Boushka’s co-defendants in the case, Alejandro Badilla, pleaded guilty Monday.

Joseph had sought a separate trial for Boushka, saying that the charges against his client were unrelated to those against Badilla and a third defendant, Alberto Lopez. Lopez’s trial was postponed by U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown until March 4.

Badilla pleaded guilty Monday to one count of “misprision of felony,” which essentially means he knew about a felony and did not report it to authorities.

That felony involved a development deal in Mexico. Badilla admitted in court he knew that the man he worked for, Muhammad Arshid Shah, did not have clear title to property he used to back corporate bonds offered to American Bank.

Badilla, a Mexican citizen whom Brown will sentence Feb. 10, had faced two counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy.

The grand jury indictment against Boushka says he also worked with Shah on business deals.