Marcus Shelander, owner of Great Lakes Telephone in Harris has been charged by the Chisago County Attorney with two felonies in an interstate internet scam.

Chisago County has charged Shelander with theft by swindle and theft by false representation, charged with bilking nearly $25,000 from three radio communications companies via the internet. An initial court date has been set for July.

The three communications firms initially filed complaints with the Minnesota Attorney Generalís Fraud Division and the FBI Internet Fraud team. The companies are Railcom of Germantown, Tenn., Mobile One Communications of North Port Fla., and T & W Electronics, Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich.

In their joint statement to the FBI and Chisago county detectives the firms say they each paid for Motorola radio repeater stations that Shelander, and his Harris company, Great Lakes Telephone, had advertised for sale on the internet. The stations were never received and Shelander refused to return the payments, which amounted to $24,570, according to the reports. Sales to each of the companies were made independently. ìApparently, he never had them to sell in the first place,î according to Mobile Oneís Les Zielinski, speaking for all three firms.

Shelander has refused to return any phone calls or e-mails, Zielinski said.