YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A former stockbroker who pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December for defrauding investors in the defunct Chill Can project has asked a court to have his plea withdrawn.
Garry Savage Sr., 80, has filed motions in Erie County Common Pleas Court alleging that fraud and misrepresentation were committed at his sentencing Dec. 30. Savage had pleaded guilty both individually and on behalf of his company, Coast to Coast Chill Inc., and was sentenced to three years of incarceration and ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution to victims. He is asking the court to reinstate his initial plea of not guilty, court papers say.
Savage, who was arrested in 2022 and was imprisoned in Erie County, was given credit for time served. He is serving the remainder of his sentence – approximately 150 days – at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio.
The motions, handwritten by Savage and dated Dec. 30 and Jan. 6, were filed Feb. 4. According to court papers, Savage filed the document pro se, meaning he is acting as his own counsel. The Dec. 30 motion asks the court to withdraw the plea, while the Jan. 6 motion requests a hearing on the matter.
According to Savage, his attorney misrepresented the terms of the plea agreement, court papers show. Savage alleges that his attorney presented him terms of an agreement that stated he would plead to securities violation and not theft; that he would be released with time served with no probation; and he would be required to pay minimal restitution of $152,000.
However, the plea agreement’s terms, signed by Savage, say the “state would recommend a prison sentence but will not specify length,” according to court filings. Also, the terms say the state would “recommend restitution for all victims.”
Savage also claims in his filing that Mitchell Joseph, CEO of Joseph International and the developer of the Chill Can project, “committed fraud and extortion against me and Coast to Coast Chill.”
According to documents, Savage has vowed to file a lawsuit against Joseph and his related companies to recover $10 million and other damages that he says he is owed from Joseph.
Under Ohio law, a motion to withdraw a plea of guilty or no contest “may be made only before a sentence is imposed.” However, in a case of correcting a “manifest injustice the court after sentence may set aside the judgment of conviction and permit the defendant to withdraw his or her plea.”
The court has not responded to Savage’s request.
Savage pleaded guilty both individually and on behalf of his company Nov. 26 to a total of 23 counts related to an investment scheme for which he was previously indicted. The scheme involved diverting investor funds to pay himself and to repay other investors, as well as omitting material facts from investors. According to the November 2021 indictment, Savage sold investments to 18 Ohio investors in Coast to Coast Chill.
The funds were supposed to be invested by Coast to Coast Chill into The Joseph Co. International to build a facility in Youngstown to manufacture self-chilling beverage cans. According to the indictment, a portion of investors’ funds were misappropriated.
Savage’s History
The Business Journal first reported in its August 2020 edition that Savage, then a former investment broker whose license was permanently suspended in 2019 for violating securities laws, was among the early investors in the Chill Can project.
Savage and Joseph Co. began doing business together in 2016, when Savage signed contracts where he agreed to pay $7.5 million for Chill Can rights to the Ohio territory and another $5.8 million for Florida, according to documents obtained by The Business Journal. However, Joseph Co. sued Savage in August 2017, alleging breach of contract. The matter was settled, and terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Yet in 2020 Savage told The Business Journal that he would “take over the whole financing part for the Joseph Co.,” insisting that he owned a stake in Youngstown and rights to a potential expansion in Florida.
Savage said at the time that his charge was to raise the money necessary to finish these projects. He said Coast to Coast spent approximately $5 million for Chill Can rights, asserting he also held royalty rights to every chill can sold worldwide.
“The money going into the Youngstown plant is mine – it’s always been mine,” he declared. He then proclaimed that he could secure additional investment to finish the Youngstown plant, start another operation near Miami, and then begin work on a third plant in Iowa.
However, Joseph Co. Chairman and CEO Mitchell Joseph told The Business Journal at the time that Savage held no financial interest in the Youngstown project, just the Florida license. “That is his only licensee relationship with the Joseph Co.,” he noted. He also emphasized the company had “zero” plans for a plant in Iowa.
Nevertheless, Savage hyped the prospects of Chill Can, boasting he had raised approximately $10 million toward the Youngstown venture. As late as February 2020, Savage asserted that investors would see royalty payments in their pockets soon, according to documents obtained by The Business Journal.
However, the project never materialized, and three empty buildings sit at the proposed campus on the city’s East Side. After a protracted legal battle with the city, the 21-acre land and buildings will be auctioned at a sheriff’s sale Feb. 18.
Joseph and his companies have essentially walked away from all litigation and the entire project. The company’s website is no longer active, nor are its phone lines.
Prosecutors said Savage diverted investors’ money for other purposes and neglected to inform clients that the state of Ohio and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority had by that time revoked his brokerage license for earlier violations.
According to a bill of particulars filed with the Erie County Common Pleas Court in 2022, prosecutors detailed hundreds of thousands of dollars of investors’ money that was misappropriated. Many of the investors were elderly.
Pictured at top: The site of the defunct Chill Can project in Youngstown.