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Updated at 2:36 p.m., Sunday, December 3, 2006

Former museum curator charged with fraud

Associated Press

The former museum curator of the Korean War museum in Oxford, Neb. — who set up a similar museum in Hawai'i two years ago — was charged with defrauding Nebraska war veterans, local governments and private individuals, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said in a release yesterday.

A Nebraska county judge also granted an emergency request for a temporary restraining order to keep Kyle Kopitke from moving the museums and removing assets from them, the release said.

Kopitke set up a Korean War museum in Wahiawa in 2004. But he had to start looking for a new location six months later because of a dispute with the owner of the land under the facility.

The Nebraska suit alleges that Kopitke set up charitable war museums in three towns there to gain thousands of dollars in incentives, benefits and personal possessions from individuals and local governments, the release said.

Kopitke used similar schemes in Utah and Hawai'i in the past eight years, Bruning said in the release.