Unknown to Bearden, a federal grand jury here indicted him April 10 on 14 charges of wire and mail fraud. The indictment was suppressed until his arrest. Rosenblum said his client had not fled from an FBI investigation. Bearden is accused of swindling more than 21 people in the St. Louis area, across the country and in Canada. Some are musicians with the St. Louis Symphony who have known him since the 1980s when he operated a small shop next to the Symphony and painstakingly made violin bows by hand.
Some victims are wealthy.
One was the estate of the late Stanley J. Goodman, former head of the May Co. and one-time chairman of the Symphony. An accomplished violinist, Goodman knew and liked Bearden. Other victims are musicians who saved for years to buy the expensive instruments they needed to hold jobs with symphony orchestras. According to the indictment, Bearden got musicians and others he knew to invest in rare instruments. He claimed the instruments had been consigned to him and that he had buyers lined up, the charges say.