Houston Trucking Dispatcher Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Oklahoma City Company and is Sentenced to Serve 15 Months in Federal Prison

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Today RICHARD V. KELLY, 44, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced by United States District Judge Robin J. Cauthron to 15 months in federal prison for using a wire fraud scheme to defraud Oklahoma City company of more than $1.2 million in false billings, announced Mark A. Yancey, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Kelly was indicted on December 8, 2015, and entered his plea of guilty today. According to court records and information from the plea hearing, Kelly admitted that from December 2007 through August 2012, while he worked as a trucking dispatcher for Freeway Delivery, Inc., in Houston, Texas, he defrauded customer Midwest Hose & Specialty, an Oklahoma City company. Kelly admitted that he created false waybills and invoices for fictitious deliveries purportedly made by his wife, a truck driver who was also employed by Freeway Delivery. Kelly admitted that the false waybills and invoices showed deliveries being made for Midwest Hose to Houma, Louisiana, but that he knew no such deliveries were made. Kelly also admitted that he knew Midwest Hose would pay those invoices and that his wife would then be paid 65 to 70 percent of the total fee charged by Freeway Delivery. Finally, Kelly admitted that he created those false documents to obtain money for deliveries that never happened.

Kelly was sentenced today by Judge Cauthron to serve 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,212,320.13 to Midwest Hose. The Court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $809,115.50, directing Kelly to forfeit that amount to the United States.  Kelly must report to federal prison on February 13, 2017.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney K. McKenzie Anderson.