Thursday, January 29, 2009

Former Louisiana Oil Exec Pleads Guilty To Defrauding Employer

Gregory L. Courtney, 50, formerly of Mandeville, Louisiana and a former engineering executive with Shell Deepwater Development, a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company, pleaded guilty to diverting more than $1 million from a company contract for his own benefit. According to prosecutors, Courtney secretly acquired a Shell Deepwater vendor, Mercury Equipment and Services Inc., and billed his employer under a fraudulent maintenance contract. He also failed to pay more than $400,000 in income to the IRS. Courtney, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion counts, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6th and faces up to 30 years in prison plus a fine of up to $350,000. The scheme lasted from at least 2001 to 2003.

Read the story here and here.

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