An Epsom woman is one of three officials charged in a case of fraud. The charges are a result of a federal investigation of fraudulent investment practices at Noble Trust Company and the fraudulent acquisition of high-value life insurance policies through Balcarres, a Manchester insurance agency.

Lisa Elliot, 45, former chief operations officer and member of the board of directors of Noble Trust Company, was charged with a felony on Thursday, March 5.

Also charged was Colin P. Lindsey, 41, of Manchester, the founder and former owner, president and chairman of the board of directors of Noble Trust Company, and part owner of Balcarres. He was charged with two counts of mail fraud.

Jerry Vito Marino, 64, of Odessa, Fla., was also charged with two counts of mail fraud in connection with the case.

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court on March 5, a number of Noble Trust’s customers’ funds were held in a product that was created and managed by Lindsay, the Noble Alternative Income Fund.

Each customer who held one of these accounts was assured they would receive annual interest payments of at least 12 percent, which would be paid on a periodic basis or in a lump sum when the account was closed. Prosecutors have also alleged Lindsey used funds held in these accounts to make loans to a company in Colorado called Sierra Factoring Inc.

Sierra’s last payment to Noble Trust was made in August 2006, which severely compromised Noble Trust’s ability to make payments to its account holders.

The documents allege that from October 2006 to September 2007 Lindsey used more than $780,000 that belonged to new customers of Noble Trust to make paynments to existing account holders, in violation of its fiduciary duty.

Lindsey concealed his use of the money that belonged to the new customers by mailing quarterly account statements to existing account holders which falsely reported tha the current market value of each account was at least equal to the amount of money that was originally placed in it.

Court documents also charge that Elliott knew that Lindsey had committed fraud in connection with those accounts and failed to report the crime.

The charges against Lindsey describe efforts he made to replace the money lent to Sierra by obtaining commissions from insurance companies which sold high-value life insurance policies to customers of Balcarres.

The charges state that Marino referred prospective customers in Lindsey, and Linsey in turn paid Marino a fee each time one of his referrals purchased a high-value life insurance policy through Balcarres.

Court documents allege that from about October 2006 to October 2007 Marino provided false information regarding the applicants’ personal financial status to Lindsey. After learning that applicant’s personal financial information was false, Lindsey nevertheless caused the false information to be mailed with applications for policies to the insurance companies.

As a result, Lindsey received commissions totalling about $5.5 million and paid about $2.1 million of that money to Marino.

No dates have been set for Lindey, Marino or Elliott to appear in court.