Logan County man admits accepting kickbacks as an employee of a subsidiary of Arch Coal

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Logan County man pleaded guilty today for his role in a kickback scheme, announced United States Attorney Carol Casto. Chadwick Lusk, 35, of Davin, entered his guilty plea to honest services mail fraud.

Lusk admitted that while he was employed as a purchasing agent at the Mountain Laurel Mining Complex, he defrauded a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arch Coal, the Mingo Logan Coal Company, of its right to honest services by receiving illegal cash kickbacks in a crib block kickback scheme. Crib blocks are used to provide roof support in an underground mine. Beginning around September 2009 and continuing until at least March 2014, Gary L. Roeher, who owned CM Supply, Co., paid Lusk a portion of the profits for the crib blocks that the Mingo Logan Coal Company purchased from CM Supply to use at Mountain Laurel. Roeher usually paid Lusk 7.5% of the crib block sales price. Roeher estimates he paid Lusk approximately $230,000 in cash kickbacks as part of the scheme, and Lusk agreed to pay $230,000 in restitution as part of his plea agreement.

Lusk faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on February 3, 2017.

The FBI, the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the West Virginia State Police conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Meredith George Thomas is in charge of the prosecution. The plea hearing was held before United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.

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