Two Individuals Sentenced for Mail Fraud and Ordered to Pay $746,000 in Restitution

St. Louis, MO – Bobby J. Woods, 50, of Stillwater, MN, and Alan Johnson, 64, of Collinsville, IL, were sentenced to a year and a day in prison and probation, respectively, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud.  They appeared in federal court today before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine D. Perry.  In addition to the sentences, the Court ordered them to pay restitution in the amount of $746,293.13.       

According to court documents, Woods and Johnson engaged in a long-term conspiracy to defraud Johnson’s employer, BMI, an industrial manufacturing company located in East St. Louis, Illinois.  Woods, an outside vendor, sold equipment to BMI at prices that were falsely inflated by between 26% and 102%.  Woods then paid Johnson, BMI’s plant manager, over $167,000 in kickbacks to ensure that Johnson would secure payment by BMI on the fraudulently inflated invoices.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gwen Carroll and Lindsay McClure-Hartman handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.