Two Men Plead Guilty to Attempting to Extort $20,000 from Cabot Oil and Gas Company
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 16, 2012 |
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that two Pennsylvania men pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to participating in a scheme to extort $20,000 from Cabot Oil and Gas Company.
According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Leslie Honeywell, age 45, Monroeton, Pennsylvania, and Kent Wuethrich, age 47, Sugar Run, Pennsylvania, admitted that they made phone calls from Pennsylvania to Texas during August 2012 in an effort to extort money from the Houston-based energy company. The scheme unraveled when agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston and Scranton learned about the plan to extort the money and arrested Honeywell and Wuethrich before they could successfully carry out their scheme.
The two men were charged in a criminal Information filed by the United States Attorney’s Office on October 9, 2012.
Both men face possible maximum sentences of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Judge Mariani scheduled sentencing for both defendants during the week of February 18, 2013.
The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.