A Colorado trucking company owner has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for his role in a million-dollar fraud and bribery scheme.
On Monday, Aug. 4, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced that Henry Lozano, 43, had been sentenced to 23 months in prison for his part in a conspiracy to commit money laundering through the submission of fraudulent invoices from his company.
According to court documents, Lozano conspired with two other individuals – Edward Joseph Chmiel, 50, and Sabino Loera, 51 – working as contractors for a Colorado electrical company. Beginning in August 2018, Lozano’s company began providing hauling services in exchange for kickback payments to Chmiel and Loera.
Prosecutors said in order to fund the kickbacks, Lozano’s company would submit false invoices to the company employing Chmiel and Loera. Court documents stated that Chmiel and Loera “would refer to this as ‘mickey mousing’ the invoices or as performing the ‘cheeky cheeky.’”
After the invoices were paid to the trucking company, Lozano would issue checks to 15 other individuals, who would in turn cash the checks and give the money to Chmiel and Loera.
“We are proud to pursue people who enrich themselves by stealing money which was supposed to provide important services for Coloradans,” U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly said in a statement. “Our office appreciates the hard work of our investigative colleagues at the IRS and FBI, which held these three accountable for their corrupt scheme.”
Prosecutors said that over a nearly two-year span – between August 2018 and June 2020 – the scheme generated roughly $1.5 million in kickback proceeds.
“Corruption such as this always has costs beyond any one company’s bottom line,” said Amanda Prestegard, special agent in charge for the IRS-CI Denver Field Office. “This sentence should serve as a reminder that commercial bribery and corruption will not be tolerated.”
For their roles, Chmiel was sentenced to 30 months in prison, with Loera to serve 25 months. Each of the three men was ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture of $1,495,781.51. LL
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