Internet Law News

St. Joseph Woman Sentenced For $312,000 Wire Fraud

Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a St. Joseph, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for stealing more than $312,000 from her employer.

Jennifer L. Evans, 35, of St. Joseph, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this afternoon to two years and eight months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Evans to pay $312,472 in restitution.

On April 20, 2006, Jennifer Evans pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Jennifer Evans was employed as the office manager for Doyle Brant, Inc., and B.S. Xpress, Inc., trucking companies headquartered in St. Joseph, from January 2004 until she was terminated in September 2005. She left following a dispute over her failure to pay the companies’ payroll taxes over the past year, causing legal problems with the Internal Revenue Service. Following her departure, the companies’ accountant conducted an analysis of the company payroll records, at which time he discovered numerous unauthorized weekly payments being made to Jennifer Evans’ husband, Ralph Evans, who was never employed by either of the companies.

The payments to Ralph Evans, which totaled $312,472 during an 18-month period, were wire-transferred weekly to his personal checking account starting Feb. 2, 2004. The last wire-transfer occurred on or about Aug. 15, 2005.

Jennifer Evans was responsible for weekly bookkeeping entries at the companies’ bank involving one large weekly wire transfer of company funds to cover payroll for their contract drivers. This further involved her processing numerous individual wire-transfers for each specific driver on a weekly basis. After making the unauthorized wire-transfers into her husband’s checking account, she created false entries in the bookkeeping records to cover up the activity.

A subsequent forensic analysis of the companies’ computer hard drive by law enforcement investigators revealed attempts by Jennifer Evans to erase all evidence of the unauthorized wire transfers.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Michael Warner. It was investigated by the St. Joseph, Mo., Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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