Michael I. "Mickey" Monus (born 1947) is the former president of

Phar-Mor Phar-Mor (stylized as ) was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, and founded by Michael I. Monus, Michael "Mickey" Monus and David Shapira in 1982. Some of its stores used the names Pharmhouse and Rx Place ( ...

, Inc., founder of the

World Basketball League World Basketball League (WBL) was a minor professional basketball league in the United States and Canada which operated from 1988 to 1992. It was founded as the International Basketball Association in November 1987, before changing its name prior ...

and was an original owner of the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

, a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

expansion team. Phar-Mor was a deep-discount

drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...

and grocery retail chain that established a strong national presence before declaring bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Accused of perpetrating an

embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

scheme behind one of the largest corporate frauds in US history, Monus was fired from the company and faced criminal charges. He was born in

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, which is where Phar-Mor was headquartered.

Early years

Monus was born into a prominent family on the north side of Youngstown, Ohio. His father, Nathan H. Monus (1921–2016), was a prominent businessman and the estranged younger brother of Mike Monus and Al B. Monus (1918–?). Mickey's mother, Frances Tamarkin Monus, was a housewife. Mickey attended the Rayen School and

University School University School, commonly referred to as US, is an all-boys, private, Junior Kindergarten–12 school with two campus locations in the Greater Cleveland area of Ohio. The campus located in Shaker Heights serves junior kindergarten through ...

, a boys preparatory school in

Shaker Heights, Ohio Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the c ...

. He graduated from

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

in Wellesley,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Monus returned to Youngstown, where he worked for a family business. His return coincided with the collapse of the community's core

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

industry, and Monus became intrigued with the possibility of launching a retail enterprise whose operations stretched beyond the borders of his hometown.

Phar-Mor

Origins

Monus partnered with David Shapira, to launch Phar-Mor, a "deep discount" drugstore which used a strategy of aggressive buying to provide customers with tremendous savings, if fewer selections. With startup money provided by

Giant Eagle Giant Eagle, Inc. is an American supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and incorporated on August 31, 1931. ''Supermarket News'' ...

, Inc., the

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

company in which Shapira's family members were large shareholders, the Phar-Mor discount drug chain became enormously successful. In 1988, the chain featured 100 stores, and Monus was described in the media as one of the nation's leading

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

s. In an effort to revitalize his hometown's deteriorating retail district, Monus located the company's national headquarters in a remodeled former department store in

downtown Youngstown Downtown Youngstown is the urban downtown center of Youngstown, Ohio, United States. Located on the north bank of the Mahoning River, Downtown Youngstown is the site of most of the city's government buildings and banks. A number of entertainmen ...

. A notoriously tough negotiator, he was able to keep retail prices low; and by 1991, there were 200 Phar-Mor outlets across the country.

Sam Walton Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for Co-founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in Rogers, Arkansas, and Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1962 and 1983 res ...

once called Monus the only retailer that he feared, since he couldn't understand how Phar-Mor grew so rapidly in a short time.Farrey, Tom
Souls of the departed haunt Youngstown

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, 2004-11-12. In addition, Monus and another Youngstown businessman, John Antonucci, were the original majority owners of

; they'd even secured the financing for what would become

Coors Field Coors Field is a baseball stadium in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies. Opened in 1995 Major League Baseball season, 1995, the park is located in Denver's LoDo, Lower Downtown neighborhood, ...

Rising issues

Amid this success, however, Monus began to show signs of becoming overextended. PharMor stores expanded into new lines, including sportswear. Meanwhile, Monus' decision to sponsor the

placed severe financial pressure on the corporation. It was speculated that Mickey Monus' father Nathan was somehow able to escape an indictment despite seemingly significant involvement in the massive fraud.

Dissolution

In July 1992, board members of Phar-Mor alleged that financial books stored at the corporate headquarters showed that the company had inflated its profits by huge margins. It would be considered one of the largest frauds in US history.Moushey, Bill
"Special Report: No deal for Monus, bad deal for fraud victims"
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', 17 September 2000. Court documents also indicated that Monus had embezzled about $10 million from the company, mainly to support his beleaguered World Basketball League and extravagant lifestyle. Monus' business partner David Shapira contacted federal agents, notified investors, and fired Monus, along with Phar-Mor's chief financial officer Patrick Finn. Unsecured claims against Monus totaled $4,104,121, while secured claims were calculated at $15,257,545. The subsequent collapse of the discount chain not only marked the end of Monus' tenure as a leading entrepreneur; it disillusioned residents of his hometown, who were still coping with the loss of the community's steel-manufacturing sector. Monus and Antonucci were forced to sell their stake in the Colorado Rockies. The scandal around Monus forced a last-minute search for a new owner; it was nearly sold to

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

investors before being bought by Jerry McMorris.

Legal proceedings

Monus was eventually convicted of having embezzled $10 million. : ewas convicted of one count of conspiracy, two counts of

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

, five counts of

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

, two counts of

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

, two counts of filing false income tax returns

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

, 96 counts of interstate transportation of stolen property

fence (criminal) A fence, also known as a receiver, mover, or moving man, is an individual who mens rea, knowingly buys stolen goods in order to later resell them for profit. The fence acts as a wikt:middleman, middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers o ...

(money) and one count of

obstruction of justice In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...

. Monus was found guilty on the government's second attempt to try him; the first trial ended in a hung jury. He was later charged with

jury tampering Jury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial. The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensure ...

in the first trial, but was acquitted. He was sentenced to 19½ years in

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for people who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), people considered dangerous (Brazil), or those sen ...

and served 10 years.Wojciechowski, Gene
"Rockies born of Monus' work, but he never saw his baby grow up"
ESPN.com, 23 October 2007. The sentence was reduced after Monus cooperated with federal authorities (FBI) in a case against another Youngstown fraudster, Richard Goldberg.

Youngstown State University

Monus was also a major benefactor to

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergrad ...

, serving as chairman of its board of trustees. It emerged that Ray Isaac, the quarterback for the 1991 Youngstown State Penguins football team (which won the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I-AA National Championship that year), had received substantial benefits from Monus over his college career, including $10,000 in cash, and the use of several cars. The NCAA made an inquiry after being tipped off to Monus' actions, but dropped it after a cursory internal investigation by the university. The true scope of the violations was only revealed in 1998, when Isaac admitted tampering with a juror in Monus' fraud trial. The university admitted to a lack of institutional control, and docked itself some scholarships; however, it was allowed to keep the 1991 national championship, because the statute of limitations had expired.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monus, Michael I. 1947 births Babson College alumni American businesspeople in retailing American white-collar criminals Businesspeople from Youngstown, Ohio Living people 20th-century American Jews American people convicted of fraud Abuse of the legal system American businesspeople convicted of crimes 21st-century American Jews