After Sentencing for Defrauding Schools, Former Belmont Man Faces Sex Assault Charges

A former Belmont man who fled to Columbia in the early 1990s after defrauding schools, churches and seminaries in an international rare books scheme pleaded guilty to 30 counts of mail fraud and sentenced Wednesday.

Richard Stanley Haugh, 73, pleaded sentenced to time served — 20 months in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns also ordered Haugh to pay restitution of $167,883, US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz announced.

In 1995, Haugh was indicted to the crimes, and was also awaiting trial in Middlesex County on child sexual assault charges. He escaped to Colombia, where he lived until his capture last year. Belmont Police will now impose the sexual assault charges.

From November 1989 to November 1990, Haugh claimed to be a scholar in theology and the history of Eastern Christianity. He ran Notable and Academic Books from his Belmont home, and claimed to be the exclusive U.S. marketing representative for Buecher Vertriebs Anstalt (BVA), a Liechtenstein entity specializing in the rare and scholarly book business.

Haugh used the aliases Heinz Reuchlin and Paul Briel to operate Editions Briel, a company that fraudulently claimed to possess for immediate shipment translations of early Christian works, multi-volume encyclopedic scholarly works and an Encyclopedia of Eastern Christianity that Haugh claimed to have authored. The books did not exist.

Haugh mailed brochures selling the books to universities, schools of theology and other in the U.S. and abroad. He required advance payment of all orders.

The scheme defrauded more than 150 universities, seminaries, churches and residents in the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and Japan. Smith College in Massachusetts is among the victims.

Authorities found Haugh in Colombia in 2014 and was extradited to the U.S. in April 2014 on the federal charges

Haugh was turned over to the custody of the Belmont Police for prosecution on the pending sexual assault charges in Middlesex County.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and James V. Buthorn, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Victor A. Wild and Ryan M. DiSantis of Ortiz’s Criminal Division.