Court Digest

Alabama 
Ex-Chick-fil-A workers sent to prison for fraud 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Two former Alabama Chick-fil-A employees have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a scheme to steal nearly $500,000 from the Georgia-based fast-food firm.

A federal judge in Alabama handed down the sentences on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Both former employees were directors at a Chick-fil-A location in Birmingham.

A plea agreement states that the two devised a scheme to divert $492,000 in customer payments away from the Chick-fil-A in the city's Five Points South neighborhood and direct them instead to bank accounts under their control. Many of the payments were for catering orders from large customers, prosecutors said.

The men used fraudulent email and digital payment accounts that looked like official Chick-fil-A accounts, prosecutors said.

Larry James Black, Jr., 37, of Center Point, Alabama, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

Joshua Daniel Powell, 40, of Moody, Alabama, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Powell had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

 

South Dakota
Man given 10 years for fraud involving military contracts

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former western Wisconsin man has been sentenced in federal court to 10 years in prison for committing fraud to obtain military contracts. 

Craig Klund, of Yankton, South Dakota, was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense by using shell companies, aliases and other deceptive practices. 

U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson on Thursday also ordered Klund to pay nearly $436,000 in restitution and serve three years on supervised release after his prison time, the Leader-Telegram  reported.

U.S. Attorney Timothy O'Shea said the former Chippewa Falls man moved his company from Wisconsin to South Dakota to evade inspectors from the Defense Contract Management Agency who were suspicious about his actions. O'Shea said Klund had previously been convicted of defense contracting fraud.

Using his shell companies Klund won more than 1,900 military contracts worth about $7.4 million from 2011 to 2019 and was paid nearly $3 million. 

According to prosecutors, Klund knowingly shipped nonconforming parts to the military and requested payment for them. Electrical parts Klund supplied had a number of uses, including in the Patriot Missile System and F-16 jet fighter.

In addition to securing the contracts through fraud, Klund also concealed proceeds from them by not reporting that money on his federal income tax returns and laundering the funds between different accounts.