Dispatcher sentenced to Prison and $1,000,000 Restitution
Richard V. Kelly, 44, of Houston, a former trucking company dispatcher, was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan. 11, by U.S. District Judge Robin J. Cauthron. The sentencing, announced via press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
Kelly was indicted on Dec. 8, 2015. According to court records and information from the plea hearing, Kelly admitted that from December 2007 through August 2012, while he worked as a trucking dispatcher for Freeway Delivery Inc., in Houston, he defrauded customer Midwest Hose & Specialty, an Oklahoma City company. The press release states that Kelly admitted to creating false waybills and invoices for fictitious deliveries purportedly made by his wife, a truck driver who was also employed by Freeway Delivery.
Kelly admitted that the false waybills and invoices showed deliveries being made for Midwest Hose to Houma, La., but that he knew no such deliveries were made. He also admitted that he knew Midwest Hose would pay those invoices and that his wife would then be paid 65 to 70 percent of the total fee charged by Freeway Delivery. Finally, Kelly admitted that he created those false documents to obtain money for deliveries that never happened.
In addition to prison time, Kelly was ordered to pay restitution of $1,212,320.13 to Midwest Hose. The Court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $809,115.50, directing Kelly to forfeit that amount to the United States. Kelly must report to federal prison on Feb. 13, 2017.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney K. McKenzie Anderson.
