Nation : Billie Sol Estes Indicted

BRADY, Tex. — Billie Sol Estes, a confidant of Lyndon B. Johnson convicted in a multimillion-dollar fertilizer swindle in the 1960s, has been indicted with five other people on charges of stealing trade secrets.

Estes, 64, was freed on $10,000 bail Tuesday with three other defendants.

The six were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. They were accused of plotting to steal and duplicate trade secrets owned by Loadcraft, a manufacturer of container cargo trailers.

“They were going to go into business against Loadcraft,” said Dist. Atty. Ronald Sutton. “They were basically ready to go when we stopped it in March, 1988.”

It took more than a year to indict them because “it takes a mountain of records to put these things together,” Sutton said. If convicted, the six each face two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, he said.