A month after confessing to stealing from clients and defrauding banks, Russell R. Wasendorf Sr., the chief executive of the collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group, was indicted on Monday by a federal grand jury.
The move is the latest development in what prosecutors say was a long-ranging fraud for a prominent figure in the futures industry, which largely consists of money management firms that trade contracts in commodities, currencies and interest rates.
The grand jury, convened in Federal District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, indicted Mr. Wasendorf on charges of making false statements to regulators.
“On 31 occasions between about February 2010 and June 2012, Wasendorf caused false reports to be submitted to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission,†Stephanie M. Rose, the United States attorney in Cedar Rapids, said in a statement.
Mr. Wasendorf faces a maximum prison term of 155 years and fines of about $7.75 mill ion, prosecutors said. An arraignment date has not been set.
His lawyer, Jane Kelly, a federal public defender in Iowa, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Last month, local police in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where Peregrine was based, found Mr. Wasendorf unconscious in his car in the company parking lot after a suicide attempt. He had left a note admitting to embezzling more than $100 million from his clients by falsifying bank statements and lying to regulators. Regulators found a customer fund shortfall of at least $200 million.
Since his arrest on July 13, Mr. Wasendorf, 64, has been held in a county jail. No other Peregrine executives has been charged in the case. Mr. Wasendorf's son, Russell R. Wasendorf Jr., the company's No. 2 executive, has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.
A version of this article appeared in print on 08/14/2012, on page B4 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Peregrine Chief Is Indicted In Broker age Fraud Case.