Valparaiso woman sentenced for wire fraud
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A Valparaiso woman faces 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud in federal court.
Randi Scannell, 66, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio, according to the U. S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Indiana
Scannell was sentenced to 10 months in prison followed by 1 year of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $460,182.69 in restitution.
Court documents stated Scannell was the owner of Custom Drying Solutions, a company that built and refurbished drum dryers.
In about 2014, Company A took steps to open an animal food drying plant in Nevada, Missouri. Company A leased a building on the outskirts of town and moved equipment into the building.
After the equipment was in place, Company A hired Custom Drying Solutions, or CDS, to install the equipment and commission the plant. CDS had the plant up and running in early 2015, and it continued operating the plant until Company A’s parent company was sold in approximately May 2015.
In 2015, Custom Drying Solutions started managing Company A’s production facility in exchange for a fixed amount of money each week.
Company A was a limited liability company in Sioux City, Iowa, that produced animal and crop nutrients.
The company also agreed to reimburse Custom Drying Solutions for labor and payroll.
Scannell, acting on behalf of CDS, hired Employer Advantage, LLC, a limited liability company in Joplin, Missouri, to handle payroll for the plant employees.
EA issued paychecks to the employees based on information that Scannell provided, including rates of pay and hours worked. The paychecks were signed by EA and paid from EA’s bank account.
Between September 2015 and August 2020, Scannell sent scores of fraudulent invoices to the company for reimbursement of payroll expenses incurred by Custom Drying Solutions, prosecutors said.
These invoices concealed weekly paychecks that Scannell directed a third-party payroll service to issue to herself, her husband and her two sons.
By paying the invoices, Company A unwittingly funded unearned paychecks totaling $460,182.69 for Scannell and her family members.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steven Lupa.