Former CEO of Washington state biodiesel company chooses court over fraud plea

In Washington state, the former CEO of a biodiesel company in Pasco accused of fraud and imprisoned since 2013 has chosen to go to trial rather than accept a plea deal that would have given him a 4-year prison sentence. He says that he didn’t mean to swindle more than $10 million from investors, instead saying that the project went wrong rather than intentionally defrauding them, which led him to drink excessively and use cocaine.