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The federal government Has dismissed charges of commercial bribery against former Katun Corp. chief financial officer Kerry Baubie.
Baubie was also acquitted in August of conspiring to defraud airlines through a ticketing scheme while at the Bloomington-based copier parts company. He faces no other federal charges.
However, the U.S. attorney's office said it will continue an investigation of Baubie's activities before 2000.
"If they try to charge [Baubie] with more stuff, the fists and the fur will be flying," said Baubie's lawyer, Jon Hopeman.
Former Katun senior sales executive Raymond Wirtz of Palm Harbor, Fla., still faces charges of commercial bribery. Wirtz was acquitted, along with Baubie, of conspiracy to defraud airlines via a companywide ticketing scheme.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hank Shea could not be reached for comment.
The federal government filed the motion to dismiss the bribery charges Friday, and a judge signed it Tuesday. Baubie and Wirtz were indicted for conspiring to pay more than $140,000 in kickbacks to Minolta Business Systems executives to have business steered to Katun, which makes replacement copier parts.
The indictments also accused the pair of being involved with former CEO Terence Michael Clarke in paying a series of bribes, some through the mail, to buy pricing information from Xerox Corp. employees.
Hopeman said part of Baubie's defense was that Clarke devised and enforced the execution of the activities. The same defense was used against the airline ticketing fraud charges.
Clarke was sentenced last year to two years in a federal prison camp and $6 million in penalties for tax evasion related to his time at the company
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