OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal indictment was unsealed Monday charging Richard V. Kelley, 43, of Houston with 12 counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with a scheme that defrauded Oklahoma City company Midwest Hose and Specialties by falsely billing for deliveries that were never made.
Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, announced the indictment, which also seeks forfeiture of $809,115.50 in proceeds traceable to the offense.
According to the indictment, Kelly was employed as a dispatcher for Freeway Delivery, a trucking company based in Houston.
Kelly’s wife worked as a truck driver for Freeway Delivery.
According to the indictment, one of Freeway Delivery’s customers was Midwest Hose, a company that makes hoses and fittings for the oil and natural gas industry.
The indictment alleges that from December 2007 to August 2012, Kelly generated false waybills and invoices from Freeway Delivery to Midwest Hose, showing fictitious deliveries made by Kelly’s wife, purportedly on behalf of Midwest Hose.
The false waybills showed deliveries made by Kelly’s wife to Nabors Drilling in Houma, Louisiana, and they were hidden by attaching them to legitimate waybills and invoices sent to Midwest Hose.
It is alleged that Kelly’s wife was paid a rate of 65-70 percent of the delivery fees paid by Midwest Hose to Freeway Delivery, through third-party biller Amerisource Funding, Inc.
The indictment charges six specific counts of mail fraud for the mailing of false invoices and waybills to Midwest Hose in Oklahoma City.
The indictment also charges six specific counts of wire fraud for the payments processed from Midwest Hose to Amerisource Funding, Inc., Freeway Delivery’s third-party billing company.
If convicted, Kelly faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the 12 counts of wire and mail fraud.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.
The Trucker News Services
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