Michael I Monus

Mr. Monus co-founded the discount drugstore chain Phar-Mor in 1982, was vice president and general partner in the Colorado Rockies baseball team, general partner and founder of the World Basketball League (WBL), and president of the local WBL franchise, the Youngstown Pride. He made headlines in 1992 when it was discovered that he was involved in large-scale corporate fraud. He was convicted on 109 felony counts and charged with embezzling as much as 1 billion dollars from Phar-Mor, mostly to bolster the failing WBL. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 1 million dollars in 1995, but the sentence was reduced by eight years and the fine halved in 1999. He was forced to sell his shares of the Colorado Rockies, the WBL folded in 1992, and the last Phar-Mor closed in 2002.