ZACHARY MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING BAKER BUSINESS

BATON ROUGE, LA – United States Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., announced that RICHARD GLENN BOYETTE, age 48, of Zachary, Louisiana, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge James J. Brady to a term of imprisonment of fifty-one (51) months.

BOYETTE had previously pled guilty to mail fraud in connection with a multi-year scheme to defraud Commercial Tire of Louisiana, Inc. (“Commercial Tire”), located in Baker, Louisiana, with offices in Scott and Hammond. While working as the company’s Controller, from 2001 through late 2010, BOYETTE admitted defrauding the company and its employees. To execute the scheme, the defendant (a) created and approved fraudulent payroll checks to himself, which he was not authorized to receive; (b) obtained fraudulent payroll checks and gained control over the funds; (c) created false entries in the company’s accounting records that falsely reflected that the fraudulent payroll checks had actually been issued to other employees; and (d) prepared and distributed fraudulent W-2s that concealed the stolen funds.

At today’s sentencing, the Court found that BOYETTE’s fraudulent scheme caused a loss to Commercial Tire of more than $1.2 million. Accordingly, BOYETTE was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,283,151. BOYETTE was also ordered to forfeit an additional $1,283,151 to the United States as proceeds of his crime. Following his release from imprisonment, BOYETTE will also be required to serve a two-year term of supervised release.

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alan A. Stevens and James P. Thompson.