Todd Beckman the president and CEO of BAM Brands, which owns Tanco, Xist Fitness, Massage Luxe and LifeXist.
In Beckman's biography on the Tanco website, Beckman said that he started his empire with the purchase of a hair salon in 1984 when he was just 18. Two years later, he added tanning equipment. In 1994, he founded The TAN Company, which grew to 50 locations in seven states, the bio says.
The website now only lists 18 locations in Missouri and Illinois, With 20 locations around the St. Louis area.
Todd Beckman, Blake Laubinger and Caleb Laubinger were arrested Thursday and appeared Friday morning in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on a single kidnapping charge.
In charging documents, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Brent Nanney Said that the victim was beaten and choked in his home on Nov. 21 by brothers Blake and Caleb Laubinger, and Todd Beckman until they secured the victim (name not released) with zip ties.
They threatened to kill the victim, then took him to Blake Laubinger’s home in Pacific, Missouri, where he was beaten, kicked and shocked by the brothers, Nanney wrote.
Beckman pistol-whipped the victim and pressed a gun to his head, pulling the trigger on an empty chamber.
Later, the victim was held overnight in a shipping container.
Court documents said that they released the victim after the victim signed a document and collected a $27,000 ransom from his parents , Blake Laubinger, and Beckman then drove him to the Gravois Bluffs area in a St. Louis Tan Co. cargo van and released him,
During some of their calls to the Victim's mother in Florida, she could hear him screaming in the background.
The mother told authorities she had heard Beckman saying that if she did not pay, “She would never see her son come Thanksgiving.”
Prosecutors requested the 3 defendants be held in jail until trial. Their next court appearances are set for Tuesday.
link to original story: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/feds-st-louis-area-businessman-involved-in-kidnapping-beating-of/article_98aede4a-6162-55f1-bc69-26b00065ac85.html
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