Nebraska man who once offered to buy doughnut chain charged with human trafficking
A Nebraska man who infamously offered to buy Krispy Kreme was arrested last month in a human-trafficking investigation that spanned the country, police in Durham, North Carolina, announced Wednesday.
Jerry Demario Guess, 39, of Falls City, is charged with three counts of human trafficking tied to three separate incidents, according to a news release. All of the victims were adults, police said.
Federal court records show Guess is also facing at least three pending lawsuits, including complaints from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor alleging fraud and failure to pay employees.
Guess' LinkedIn profile lists him as the founder, chairman and president of the Kansas City, Missouri-based Guess & Co. The company has relocated at least four times since 2019 and was purportedly located in Durham from July 2017 to January 2019, the profile states.
On its website, Guess & Co. described itself as "the premier leader in delivering inclusive capitalism to rural, urban, and global communities through technology, real estate, energy, health care and diversified solutions." Federal officials questioned that description in a May news release announcing the SEC charges. From 2019 to 2021, the company only made $450, selling two computers in November 2021, the SEC complaint alleges.
Two years after announcing he had offered to buy Krispy Kreme for $500 million in 2008, Guess was indicted on multiple federal charges after defrauding investors out of $1.7 million during the three years he operated several companies in Charlotte, North Carolina. At that time, Guess was being held in Toronto after reportedly fleeing to Canada in 2008 when he failed to appear in court over a $375,000 lawsuit, according to the SEC complaint.
Guess pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and filing false tax returns in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in 2011, court records show. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution, but served additional prison time for violating the conditions of his sentence. Guess was ultimately released in July 2017, according to prison records.
It was unclear Wednesday if Guess' charges in Durham were tied to his business dealings with Guess & Co.
Guess was arrested Oct. 18 and is being held in the Durham County jail under $6 million secured bail, according to the release. He is next set to appear in court Nov. 14.
