MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a request to move out of Vermont the trial of a Miami businessman accused in a multimillion-dollar ski resort fraud case.
Ariel Quiros had argued pre-trial publicity convicted him before his trial, now scheduled to begin in October in Rutland.
In a decision issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford said Quiros did not meet the legal standard to show that it would be impossible to find an unbiased jury in southern Vermont.
Quiros, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, also argued unsuccessfully the prosecutors in the case had conflicts of interest.
Two of Quiros' three co-defendants in the case joined his unsuccessful request to move the trial.
Quiros and three others were indicted last May over a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport using foreign investors' money.
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