Sunday, January 25, 2015

Texas Man Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $931K From Contracting Firm

From the St. Joseph News-Press on 1/23/2015:

A Texas man pleaded guilty in federal court to a mail fraud scheme in which he embezzled more than $930,000 from Herzog Contracting Corp. in St. Joseph.

Daniel Reif, 48, of Weatherford, Texas, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false income tax return.

Mr. Reif admitted that he engaged in a scheme to defraud Herzog from January 2006 through Aug. 26, 2011. The government’s evidence establishes the amount embezzled totaled at least $931,256.

Herzog, which constructs railroads, highways, bridges and airports, has a regional office in Irving, Texas. Mr. Reif began working for Herzog in the Irving office in 2005 as a manager who was responsible for procuring materials and services from vendors.

Mr. Reif founded his own company, Railway Signal Solutions, in February 2005.
 
He began ordering project materials and services from supply vendors through RSS, then resold those products and services to Herzog at inflated prices. The RSS invoices made it appear as though the materials and services were being provided directly by RSS, an ostensibly independent supply vendor.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Mr. Reif will be sentenced to 36 to 38 months in federal prison without parole and must pay restitution in an amount to be determined by the court. He must forfeit to the government $105,000 seized from his TD Ameritrade account and a 2010 Tige boat and trailer.

Read the whole story here.

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