Episode 4 - ATM King: Royally Screwed

December 3-4: Motion for Contempt

The downfall of Heller’s ATM scheme took a dramatic turn on December 3, 2024, as plaintiffs in a high-stakes lawsuit against Paramount Management Group (PMG) filed an emergency motion accusing the company and its owner, Daryl Heller, of contempt. At the heart of the motion were accusations of defying court orders and failing to hand over vital assets.

The emergency filing painted a grim picture. PMG, tasked with providing an inventory of its ATMs within 48 hours and transferring ownership rights within seven days, delivered on neither. Worse, no payments had been made toward the $138 million judgment against the company. Plaintiffs warned that the delays were turning the ATM network into a ticking time bomb, with every hour of noncompliance eroding its value and investor trust. “Defendant’s failures place the funds at risk of being unable to satisfy the judgment or preserve the ATM business,” the motion read, warning that the financial livelihoods of 2,700 members hung in the balance.

In response to Prestige Fund’s emergency motion, Judge Leonard G. Brown III ordered a contempt hearing for December 6. In the face of growing frustration from investors and mounting pressure from site owners threatening to replace non-functioning ATMs, the court demanded that Heller appear in person to account for his company’s failures.

The chaos continued that day as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission confirmed that PMG’s ATMs at 17 service plazas were empty. Marissa Orbanek, a spokesperson for the commission, stated that the company’s vault cash provider had severed ties, citing Paramount’s legal and financial woes. “Our provider of vault cash canceled our agreement and has begun to remove cash from our ATMs,” Orbanek confirmed. Heller and his team offered little more than vague reassurances. In a terse message to local reporter Chad Umble, Heller characterized the outages as “an unintended consequence of transitional elements tied to the court order.”

December 5: The Feds Drop In

Federal agents swarmed the company’s downtown Lancaster office on December 5, adding the weight of a federal investigation to the already crushing $138 million judgment Heller faces over his supposed ATM empire. At least a dozen FBI agents descended on 415 North Prince Street, where Heller’s business conglomeration is headquartered. In statements to LancasterOnline, witnesses described a scene of intense activity, with agents clad in bulletproof vests arriving in a convoy of vehicles shortly after 9 a.m. By mid-afternoon, they were seen carrying boxes out of the building, loading them into waiting vehicles. The raid didn’t stop there according to the Prestige Fund attorneys. Their memo to plaintiffs stated that Heller’s compound in the gated Bent Creek community was also targeted.

Philadelphia FBI spokesperson Sofia Kettler offered only a brief statement to LNP : “I can confirm the FBI is conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity.” But the sight of federal agents hauling evidence from Paramount’s offices marked the first public indication that a federal probe could be underway, adding to Heller's legal issues.

December 6 - Emergency Contempt Hearing

The December 6 contempt hearing provided a brutally honest assessment of Paramount’s operations. Appearing for the hearing, Paramount owner Daryl Heller and CEO Randall Leaman invoked their Fifth Amendment right, refusing to answer questions that could incriminate them. The void of their silence was filled by testimony of experts and insiders that revealed a network of deceit.

PMG’s ATM network, boasting to own 25,000 machines, turned out to be significantly smaller, if not outright imaginary. Leigh Danca, Paramount’s Vice President of information systems, testified that the true number of ATMs in the network peaked at around 10,000, less than half of Heller’s public claims. Danca’s testimony also confirmed that even these numbers included machines owned by third parties.

ATM expert Brent Bauman delivered another bombshell. He revealed that 18,000 of the 28,000 serial numbers provided by Paramount were fake. Even worse, Bauman testified that Paramount had falsely claimed ownership of machines belonging to his own company, Republic Amusements.

Investor attorney Matt Haverstick summed up the gravity of the situation, telling LancasterOnline: “...there are approximately 18,000 ATMs that have been represented that the funds own, but if you ask me right now, I don’t think they exist at all and therefore were never generating revenue.”

The revelations prompted swift action from Judge Leonard G. Brown III, who imposed a $50,000 daily fine on PMG starting December 7, escalating to $100,000 per day after December 14 if the company fails to provide the court-ordered inventory and transfer control of its ATMs to investors. These sanctions are in addition to the $138 million judgment handed down in November, a financial sword hanging over Paramount’s head.

Daryl Heller, owner of Paramount, invoked his 5th Amendment rights and refused to answer any questions

Brent Bauman, an industry expert, testified that Paramount falsified ATM ownership

Randall Leaman, CEO of Paramount, invoked his 5th Amendment rights and refused to answer any questions

Leigh Danca, VP of IS, reported that Heller's network was a huge lie

December 9-11: Requests for Asset Seizure

Heller took the first steps towards complying with Judge Brown’s order from December 6 by submitting a document listing 28,077 purported ATM serial numbers. The validity of this list is in doubt, however, based on recent testimony from Brent Bauman showing that most of the list was fairytale dust. That same day, plaintiffs intensified their efforts to recover assets by issuing interrogatories to potential garnishees. The list of entities under scrutiny was extensive, ranging from local banks like Fulton Bank and Peoples Bank to national institutions such as JP Morgan Chase and Charles Schwab. The garnishees also included entities tied to Heller’s sprawling business empire, such as First Regents Holdings LLC and PowerQwest Financial LLC. The interrogatories sought to identify any financial connections to Paramount, Heller Capital Group, or other associated companies, starting the process for asset seizures.

The search for recoverable assets widened significantly a day later as plaintiffs filed a request for a writ of execution, directing the Dauphin County Sheriff to investigate garnishees for any financial ties to Paramount and its affiliates. Among the targets were notable players in the ATM and financial technology sectors, including Bitstop, a Bitcoin ATM provider operating under ATM OPS Inc., and PowerCoin LLC, a Lancaster-based company specializing in digital currency infrastructure. Cardtronics USA, a major operator in the ATM space, was also on the list, highlighting the broad scope of the plaintiffs’ recovery efforts.

Prestige attorneys filed to have the county Sheriff's begin investigation into seizure of assets

December 11 - Dave Zook Email to Prestige Investors

Prestige Fund investors were given little comfort in a December 11 email from Dave Zook, a Fund manager who proudly pitched the scheme. The email, seemingly a rallying call to focus on recovery, highlighted the growing scale of deception and dysfunction in a network once touted as a guarantee. Zook’s email acknowledged the aftermath of a December 6 contempt hearing, where testimony revealed that the 25,000 ATMs Heller had claimed to manage were more fiction than fact. This claim had been made for years though, raising questions about why Zook, an executive closely tied to Heller, continued to pitch the investment to his own community.

Zook framed recent events as failures to meet “critical deadlines” but stopped short of addressing the systemic nature of the misrepresentations. The email acknowledged Heller’s decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights at the hearing but omitted the broader implications of this silence, the suspicion of fraud and financial misconduct. While Zook hinted at accountability, he noticeably avoided any direct critique of Heller, whose leadership lies at the center of this collapse.

Zook’s email also detailed a recovery plan, focusing on identifying operational ATMs and pursuing financial assets tied to Heller through liens and garnishments. However, this optimism stands in stark contrast to the bleak realities investors face. Efforts to locate and monetize these assets, Zook conceded, would be “challenging and take time,” a profound understatement given the current situation.

Zook's email, as posted by an investor, to Reddit. Click to view the complete letter.

Additionally, the email failed to acknowledge the implications of the FBI and SEC’s involvement. While Zook mentioned the raid as an escalation of the investigation, he did not address its root cause: suspicions of criminal activity tied to the network’s mismanagement and fraud.

Though Zook’s email gave the appearance of transparency, it raised as many questions as it answered. Notably absent was any acknowledgment of his or other fund managers’ roles in promoting the network. Investors had relied on their endorsements and assurances of oversight, only to discover the network’s scale and viability had been grossly inflated. The email sidestepped this critical issue, instead focusing on recovery efforts as though the collapse was an unforeseen accident rather than the result of sustained lies.

December 13 - Paramount Fires All Employees

In a very brief video call on December 13, all remaining employees of Paramount Management Group were told they were being fired immediately, putting another nail in the company’s coffin. The call, conducted by Paramount’s managers who were themselves losing their jobs, ended when employees began asking questions. Heller, the company’s owner, was notably absent, leaving those on the call with no direct explanations for their sudden termination. Former employees described the call as disheartening, though not entirely surprising given the company’s ongoing turmoil. Many had been bracing for bad news but were shocked by the immediacy of the mass firing.

The firing of all Paramount workers severely complicated plaintiffs’ attempts to determine what is left of the network and gain control of it. By removing the workforce, Heller solely controlled the information and access to that network. What it didn’t do was quiet the former employees who knew where the bodies were buried.

Soon-to-be painted over signage at 415 N. Prince St. - from WGAL

December 18 - Judge Brown III Steps In

The day began with an order by Judge Leonard G. Brown III that all parties were to attend a status conference the next day. The meeting, though virtual, would determine the course of action necessary to break Paramount of its defiance to previous court orders.

The next morning, the status conference was convened. What followed was a direct and uncompromising response from Judge Brown, who was clearly unimpressed with Paramount's persistent noncompliance. The court issued two directives:

A contempt hearing was scheduled for December 30, 2024, at 10 a.m., ordering Paramount’s owner, Daryl Heller, and CEO Randall Leaman to appear in person. A clear warning was issued: failure to show up would result in immediate arrest.
Paramount was ordered to transfer all revenues and profits generated from the plaintiffs’ ATM network to Prestige Funds by midnight that night.

The court's firm stance appeared to signal its recognition of the urgent need to take action. The plaintiffs had long argued that the network’s value was diminishing daily as contracts dissolved, machines went offline, and revenue evaporated.

Midnight passed, and not a single dollar of the revenue had been turned over. Prestige Funds wasted no time, filing a second motion for contempt early on December 20. The motion again highlighted the irreparable harm caused by Paramount’s inaction as each day passed. All of the pieces were in place for Paramount to enter the “Find Out” stage by Judge Brown III.

December 19 - Bauman's Bad News for Investors

On December 19, 2024, a video call with Brent Bauman, an industry expert retained by the investors of Prestige Funds, delivered an updated assessment of the Paramount ATM network. Bauman’s update painted a grim picture of its dwindling operational capacity.

While Heller and his cronies claimed ownership of 25,000 ATMs, Paramount could only confirm an inventory of approximately 10,000 machines. Of those 10,000, many were not in operation, several had been seized by creditors and vendors. “The number of live ATMs is going down every day,” Bauman reported.
Further shrinking that 10,000 number was the dissolving contracts with ATM site owners. So, while the physical machine may be present, it would not be generating income.

December 30 - Contempt Hearing and Crimes Unconvered

The day many had been eagerly anticipating finally arrived, the December 30th contempt hearing. Would Heller spend New Years in the clink, or would he get more time to comply? First, let’s examine the testimony from the hearing. As a note, both Parties agreed that to save everyone’s time, testimony would be recorded ahead of time and submitted to the court.

View the full testimonies

Testimony of Daryl Heller - Paramount Owner

Daryl Heller invoked his Fifth Amendment right when confronted with a series of pointed questions about his role in the collapse of the company’s ATM network. In civil cases, such as this one, courts are permitted to draw adverse inferences from a defendant’s refusal to testify. In this situation, it means the court can interpret Heller’s decision to plead the Fifth as an indication that truthful answers to the questions posed would likely reveal damaging or incriminating information.

The questions laid bare a series of potential actions by Heller and Paramount that suggest deep-rooted corruption:

Paramount has remained in contempt of the December 6th order to transfer all assets to Prestige, including a truthful master list of ATMs, acquisition contracts, and the ATMs themselves.

Throughout the years of Prestige recruiting various investment rounds, Paramount should have a fully owned, actively working inventory of at least 38,000 ATMs. But they never purchased anything near that, in fact, the real number of ATMs 100% owned by Paramount never went beyond 8,000 at any time in its history. Most of the ATMs listed in Paramount’s inventory were actually owned by someone else. Even worse, those 10,000 ATMs that could have potentially been used to recoup some of the judgment have $7 million in debt attached to them.

Adding insult to injury, Heller pleaded the Fifth to questions about him using investor profits to pay for Paramount’s legal defense, to the tune of $50,000 since November 21. Paramount engaged attorneys well before November 21, so that number could be much higher. And Plaintiff attorneys appeared to allege that Heller was siphoning off investor profits by sending one of his other ventures, Heller Capital Group, more than $300,000 since November 21.

Daryl Heller arriving for court - from LancasterOnline.com

By failing to answer these allegations, Heller allows the narrative of deliberate fraud and financial mismanagement to gain credibility. Hiding behind the Fifth means Heller cannot provide an alternative explanation or rebut allegations in any meaningful fashion outside of a family picnic.

Testimony of Randall Leaman, Paramount CEO

Leaman, through his testimony, took a local Red Rose Transit bus, ran over five key Paramount personnel, and kept on driving without any attempt to be accountable.

When asked how many ATMs were purchased using investor funds, he claimed ignorance, shifting responsibility to the company’s former CFO, Dennis Ream, who had resigned in October 2024.

Regarding the accounting and management of ATM-generated revenue, Leaman deflected responsibility to Brandon Hall, the Vice President of Finance, who had resigned in early December, just weeks before the hearing.

Leaman also admitted that compliance with a court order from November 2024 was left to others. According to his testimony, he directed Paramount staff, including President Steve Gerries and VP of Information Systems Leigh Danca, to gather information.

However, he stated that decisions about what to share with plaintiffs were ultimately made by CEO Daryl Heller and his legal team. The testimony also revealed that Leaman was terminated by Heller on December 12, 2024, which could be the result of internal fallout or an attempt to give the appearance of a buffer between the two men.

For such a lofty position as Chief Executive Officer of a multi-state ATM network, it seems laughable that Leaman had no clue of the goings-on of Paramount.

Randall Leaman, Paramount CEO who knew nothing, did nothing, saw nothing. Glamour shot from archived Paramount webpage.

Was Leaman really just a stooge who was content to enrich himself without asking questions?

Testimony of Matt Eby, Former Prestige Investment CFO

Matt Eby, the former CFO of Prestige Investment Group, provided damning testimony that shed light on the financial irregularities and systemic failures at Paramount Management Group. Eby’s role as CFO gave him direct insight into the transactions between Prestige Funds and Paramount. His analysis showed the following:

Matt Eby, former Prestige CFO - from archived Prestige webpage

Over the years, plaintiffs remitted funds to purchase 38,561 ATMs. However, by the end of 2024, only 36,103 ATMs had been accounted for in the bills of sale provided by Paramount.

On December 27, 2024, Paramount’s legal counsel sent additional bills of sale that purported to cover previously unaccounted-for ATMs. However, these documents included 436 ATMs attributed to a plaintiff fund that had not made any purchases in 2023 and 201 serial numbers that were duplicates from prior invoices. Such inconsistencies suggest either gross negligence or deliberate manipulation of records.

A report sent by Daryl Heller in February 2024 stated that 34,284 ATMs were online and generating gross revenue of $43.9 million in January 2024 alone. However, this figure stood in stark contrast to the actual number of operational ATMs identified later in the year and the reality of nonpayment from April onward.

Testimony of Leigh Danca, Former Paramount VP of IS

Danca’s testimony directly challenged Paramount’s longstanding claims about the scale of its ATM operations. While investors were led to believe they were purchasing or managing a network of over 38,000 ATMs, Danca’s firsthand knowledge as VP revealed otherwise.

Leigh Danca - former Paramount VP of IS - from archived Paramount webpage

At its peak, Paramount had only 8,000 ATMs it could claim as its own and managed no more than 20,000 in total, which included affiliate-owned machines.

By the time 10,000 ATMs were assigned to plaintiffs on December 10, 2024, the network had already been gutted. Paramount had sold 10,000 ATMs to third parties between August and December 2024, leaving only a fraction of the machines under management. Worse, of the 10,000 ATMs assigned to the plaintiffs, just 5,000 were Paramount-owned, and many of these were offline.

The most damning aspect of Danca’s testimony was her revelation about Paramount’s failure to provide the plaintiffs with critical operational tools. Paramount withheld access to SMS and Morphis, software systems vital for managing ATM contracts, performance data, and locations. Without this information, the plaintiffs were left blind, unable to operate the machines effectively or assess their revenue potential. When all employees, including Danca, were terminated on December 13, Paramount lost any capacity to deliver on the judgment.

Testimony of Brent Bauman, ATM Industry Expert

The testimony by ATM expert Brent Bauman revealed a harrowing account of operational chaos in the transfer of ATM assets from Paramount Management Group to the Plaintiffs. On December 10, 2024, Paramount assigned approximately 10,000 ATMs to the Plaintiffs; however, this transfer was marred by complications.

Brent Bauman - ATM industry and Financial expert

Only 5,000 of these machines were directly owned by Paramount, while the remainder were classified as affiliate-owned, granting the Plaintiffs limited processing rights.

Nearly 6,700 of the transferred ATMs faced ownership disputes from third parties, leaving Prestige investors with undisputed control over just 975 machines and partial rights over approximately 1,700 others.

The operational integrity of the assigned ATMs was also gravely compromised. Many machines were offline or non-operational at the time of transfer, and Paramount failed to provide access to critical management systems, such as SMS and Morphis, until December 20, 2024. Even then, the Plaintiffs received incomplete and disorganized data, rendering their efforts to assume control over the network largely ineffective. Moreover, Paramount delayed delivering acquisition contracts until December 27, 2024, further hampering the ability to resolve ownership disputes or manage the ATMs effectively.

Paramount’s unpaid debts, which reportedly reached $7 million, crippled its ability to maintain the network. Vendors, such as modem providers, ceased services after months of non-payment, directly impacting the functionality of hundreds of ATMs. Despite the transfer, Plaintiffs still have not received any revenue from the machines, as processors refuse to remit funds due to the unresolved ownership disputes.

As a result of the hearing and submitted testimony, Judge Leonard G. Brown III set new deadlines for both sides to submit additional filings. Plaintiffs were ordered to submit their brief supporting the contempt motion by January 3, 2025, while Paramount Management Group and its owner, Daryl Heller, have until January 8, 2025, to respond.

The court also dismissed a request to hold former Paramount executive Randall Leaman in contempt, following an agreement between both parties. Meanwhile, attorney Joshua Voss, representing the investment funds, informed the court that he needed additional time to analyze financial information recently shared by Paramount. In light of this, Judge Brown postponed deciding whether to suspend the $100,000 daily fines imposed on Paramount for failing to comply with prior court orders.

Hon. Leonard Brown III - from X.com.

Contempt Hearing Outcome

Despite a $138 million judgment against him and testimony exposing outright fraud, Daryl Heller has managed to evade true accountability at every turn. In Episode 5, we’ll take a hard look at the numbers behind the claims made by Heller, Zook, Hostetter, and others, peeling back the layers to reveal their eerie resemblance to a classic Ponzi scheme.

What's Next?

Episode Resources

CountySuite: CI-24-06012, CI-24-06012 (Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas). Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://portal.lancaster.pa.countysuite-azuregov.us/courts.civil.publicsearch/(S(kef0asr2iadmng0aznc0b5v5))/ng/case/1143851

Umble, C. (2024a, December 3). ATMs at Pa. Turnpike service plazas out of service due to problems with Lancaster-based provider. LancasterOnline. https://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/atms-at-pa-turnpike-service-plazas-out-of-service-due-to-problems-with-lancaster-based/article_48fd7644-b18e-11ef-80c6-ff384b67de1e.html

Umble, C. (2024b, December 5). FBI agents appear at offices of Lancaster-based ATM network that owes $138M to investors. LancasterOnline. https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/fbi-agents-appear-at-offices-of-lancaster-based-atm-network-that-owes-138m-to-investors/article_85a7f7f6-b321-11ef-9090-9f2ab795cd69.html

Umble, C. (2024c, December 6). Witnesses at contempt hearing say Lancaster-based ATM network is less than half purported size. LancasterOnline. https://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/witnesses-at-contempt-hearing-say-lancaster-based-atm-network-is-less-than-half-purported-size/article_d7fdb43c-b425-11ef-af04-5b34ef4ffbd5.html

Umble, C. (2024d, December 20). All Paramount Management Group employees laid off in fallout from investor lawsuit, $138M judgment. LancasterOnline. https://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/all-paramount-management-group-employees-laid-off-in-fallout-from-investor-lawsuit-138m-judgment/article_98165e36-be53-11ef-8449-375882d437ab.html

Umble, C. (2024e, December 24). Only “a fraction” of ATMs in ailing Lancaster-based network still active, expert warns. LancasterOnline. https://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/only-a-fraction-of-atms-in-ailing-lancaster-based-network-still-active-expert-warns/article_9de40f72-c239-11ef-8f7b-e70c3b4d6584.html

Disclaimer and other information

As these episodes pick up attention, I figured it might be best to document this disclaimer (most Watchdog articles don't get attention outside of our small town):

The author of this blog has no financial interest or investment, personal or familial connection, bone to pick, axe to grind, bellyache, personal vendetta, ulterior motive, or any other wild and/or sordid arrangement, with any of the parties identified or discussed in this series. It's simply personal intrigue at what appears to be a historical financial scandal happening right here in our local communities. I'm not a journalist, make no claims to such, and have no interest in competing with those who provide the news as a career. My goal is simply to provide the information I've compiled through news reports, court documents, social media, and personal contacts with investors in a comprehensive manner that puts all of the pieces together. There's more than just the hot local Prestige v. Paramount case - the numerous creditors filing lawsuits and dozens of our own neighbors losing jobs just before Christmas paint a picture of unbridled greed. <--- Again, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

For another series of news reports, please view the many articles written by LancasterOnline reporters Dan Nephin and Chad Umble. (A paid subscription is necessary to view most articles)