Business Owner Sentenced in Bankruptcy Fraud Case
Approximately $1,000,000 in Bankruptcy Assets Concealed

ALEXANDRIA, LA—BOBBY D. CURTIS, age 44, a resident of Pineville, Louisiana, was sentenced this week by United States District Judge Dee D. Drell to 37 months in a federal prison and ordered to pay $355,119 in restitution for concealment of approximately $1,000,000 in contracted business and assets of his company, Gen-I-Tech, Inc., United States Attorney Donald W. Washington announced.

CURTIS plead guilty January 12, 2009, to an indictment charging him with one count of Concealment of Bankruptcy Estate Assets, and was sentenced May 21, 2009. In addition to the 37-month sentence imposed by Judge Drell, CURTIS will be on supervised release for three years after serving his prison sentence. The one-count indictment charged that beginning in May of 2002 and continuing until at least July 2003, CURTIS concealed from the Bankruptcy Trustee property belonging to the debtor estate by undervaluing Gen-I-Tech, Inc., and failing to disclose assets of the company.

Bobby Dean Curtis, d/b/a Gen-I-Tech and Dina Alexa Curtis, filed a voluntary petition for personal Chapter 13 bankruptcy on May 24, 2002. In that Bankruptcy Schedule B, the defendant stated that the value of Gen-I-Tech was $2,000. The debtors’ case converted to a Chapter 11 on August 29, 2002, and subsequently to Chapter 7 on February 12, 2003, and the debtors received a discharge on July 23, 2003. The criminal investigation revealed that Gen-I-Tech was awarded the Westside Alternative School project and received approximately $200,000 in payments prior to his bankruptcy discharge. In addition, the investigation revealed that in February 2003, Gen-I-Tech signed a contract for $1.1 million in e-rate funds on the National Guard Job Challenge and Youth Challenge projects. Subsequent Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions filed in 2004 were dismissed after creditors objected to the plans.

U. S. Attorney Donald Washington stated: “The bankruptcy system is intended to provide eligible and honest debtors a fresh financial start. The responsibility of full financial disclosure should not be taken lightly when a debtor is afforded protection under the bankruptcy laws.”

Sentencing in federal court is determined by the discretion of federal judges and the governing statute. Parole has been abolished in the federal system.

This case was investigated by the U. S. Trustee’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cytheria D. Jernigan.