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CHARLESTON - A Williamstown man was sentenced Monday to two years and six months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $510,465.19 in restitution for wire fraud, the Department of Justice said.
Jeffrey Jeffers, 35, admitted to stealing $510,465.19 from his employer through false charges to company-issued credit cards, Moore Capito, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, said in a release.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between November 2022 and July 2024, Jeffers delivered products by truck for a large provider of industrial gas from its distribution facility in Wood County. The delivery trucks were fueled at the distribution facility and also were equipped with fuel credit cards.
As part of his guilty plea, Jeffers admitted that he fraudulently charged $510,465.19 to the fuel credit cards throughout his term of employment. Jeffers admitted he opened online payment platform accounts in the names of fictitious service stations he created as part of his scheme. Jeffers charged more than 900 phantom fuel purchases to his employer's fuel credit cards, payable to his fake service station accounts. Jeffers admitted that his delivery routes normally never required any refueling outside of the distribution facility.
Capito commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin imposed the sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel Price prosecuted the case.