Rome Man Pleads Guilty in Multi-Million-Dollar Timber Fraud Scheme

AARON WILBERT FREEMAN, 50, of Rome, Georgia, pleaded guilty before Senior United States District Judge Robert L. Vining in federal district court late yesterday (November 2) to multiple charges relating to a $4 million scheme involving timber that did not exist. A jury had been selected and FREEMAN’s trial was set to begin today when FREEMAN pleaded late yesterday.

United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of yesterday’s guilty plea, “Paper is made from trees, but in this case, Freeman created trees out of paper. He did so by manipulating his employer’s computer system to create phony receipts for timber deliveries that never took place. He also recruited timber truck drivers to redeem the fake receipts for payment, then laundered the proceeds through multiple financial institutions.”

Brian D. Lamkin, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta, stated, “The level of fraud that Mr. Freeman conspired to commit against his former employer, the Temple-Inland Company, was significant. The FBI is pleased that, through its investigation and the resulting prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office, not only was any additional fraud stopped, but now Mr. Freeman will be held accountable for his actions.”

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court: FREEMAN worked as a scale house operator at the Temple-Inland Co. paper mill in Floyd County, Georgia until June 2006. The scale house received and weighed approximately 350 timber trucks each day, providing a delivery receipt, known in the industry as a “scale ticket,” to each driver as proof of delivery. Between 2003 and 2006, FREEMAN worked primarily during the night shift, often alone, processing timber deliveries through the scale house computer system.

While working in the scale house during this time frame, FREEMAN manipulated the computer system to produce multiple weight readings when a single timber truck passed through the paper mill’s scale, making it appear as if there had been two or more deliveries when there had only been one. FREEMAN then caused the computer system to generate false scale tickets for the phantom loads, along with valid scale tickets for the legitimate deliveries. The Rome scale house computer system would simultaneously transmit the delivery information electronically to Temple-Inland’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, ultimately resulting in electronic funds transfers from Temple-Inland’s bank to timber suppliers’ bank accounts in Georgia and South Carolina.

After creating the false scale tickets, FREEMAN recruited multiple co-conspirators, including KEVIN A. FIELDS, 31, of Forsyth, Georgia; JASON S. JOSEPH, 32, of Macon, Georgia; ROGER G. CARTHERN, 63, and R. ANDREW CARTHERN, 40, both of Jefferson, Georgia; J. DAVID CARTHERN, 64, of Commerce, Georgia; ROBERT FRANK FERGUSON, JR., 56, of Maysville, Georgia; and GEORGE BONNER TATE, 40, of Hartwell, Georgia, to redeem the false scale tickets for payment by timber suppliers, launder the payments through multiple banks and credit unions, and return a share of the money to FREEMAN in cash.

By manipulating the scale house computer system and creating false scale tickets, FREEMAN caused Temple-Inland to pay approximately $3.35 million for phantom timber that FIELDS claimed to have delivered; $910,000 for phantom timber that JOSEPH claimed to have delivered; $313,000 to ROGER and ANDREW CARTHERN; more than $112,000 to DAVID CARTHERN and ROBERT FRANK FERGUSON; and more than $160,000 to GEORGE TATE, all of whom shared their money with FREEMAN.

On November 2, 2009, a federal grand jury returned a 20-count indictment against FREEMAN, FIELDS, JOSEPH, ROGER CARTHERN, ANDREW CARTHERN, DAVID CARTHERN, FERGUSON, TATE, and CURTIS J. HART, 52, of Macon, Georgia. JOSEPH, ROGER CARTHERN, ANDREW CARTHERN, FERGUSON, and TATE all pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to cooperate in the case. FIELDS pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and also agreed to cooperate. The government dismissed DAVID CARTHERN and HART from the case on May 20 and July 14, 2010, respectively.

FREEMAN pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. FREEMAN could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for the wire fraud conspiracy, and a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to approximately $3.6 million for the money laundering conspiracy. In determining FREEMAN’s actual sentence, the court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 13, 2010, at 10:30 a.m., before Senior United States District Judge Robet L. Vining in Room 303 of the United States Courthouse in Rome, Georgia. Sentencing dates for the co-defendants have not yet been set.

This case is being investigated by special agents of the FBI.

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Former Police Officer Convicted of Witness Tampering and Obstruction of Justice

A jury in federal district court has returned a guilty verdict against MARK HOWELL SPARKS, 40, of Felton, Georgia on charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and possession of a motor vehicle with an altered vehicle identification number (VIN).

“The defendant was a police officer who encouraged a witness to withhold information about criminal activity from law enforcement authorities,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “He also obstructed a criminal investigation by tipping off targets of the investigation that the witness was wearing a recording device. The defendant was trying to protect friends who he knew were involved in criminal activity. But the citizens of Polk County employed the defendant as a police officer to protect them from the criminals, not for him to protect the criminals from the police. The defendant now faces time in federal prison for tampering with a witness and obstructing justice.”

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court, in June and July 2008, SPARKS was the supervisor of the detective squad at the Polk County Police Department when an investigation into chop shop activity in Polk County was opened by the FBI and the Polk County Police Department. SPARKS was directly involved in the investigation. SPARKS was personally acquainted with several of the potential targets of the investigation. Early on in the investigation SPARKS tipped off an individual that a search warrant was going to be executed at his residence and that detectives were looking for vehicles with altered vehicle identification numbers that the individual had sold to others. SPARKS later convinced the same individual to talk to FBI agents and Polk County detectives about the primary target of the investigation being involved in chop shop activity, but at the same time the individual was to withhold information he knew about SPARKS’ friends who were also operating chop shops. SPARKS did so in an effort to derail the investigation against his friends. Based upon Sparks’ encouragement, the individual told the FBI and Polk County detectives about chop shop activity committed by one specific target, but intentionally withheld information about other targets.

The individual agreed to wear a recording device in an effort to gather evidence against the one target about whom he provided information. Later SPARKS obstructed the investigation by telling other targets of the investigation that the individual was recording conversations and that they should not talk to him. When the individual learned that SPARKS was telling others that the individual was cooperating and wearing a recording device, the individual told FBI agents and Polk County detectives the truth about SPARKS’ efforts to obstruct the investigation.

Also evidence was presented that established that during the time that SPARKS was a police officer he knowingly drove a stolen Chevrolet pick up truck that had an altered VIN plate. When SPARKS was arrested on October 6, 2009, he confessed to driving the pick up truck knowing that it was stolen and knowing that it had an altered VIN. SPARKS resigned from the Polk County Police Department in October, 2009.

The jury acquitted SPARKS on charges that he maintained a chop shop and possessed motor vehicle parts with obliterated or removed VINs.

SPARKS was indicted on these charges on March 23, 2010.

SPARKS could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the witness tampering and possession of a motor vehicle with an altered VIN charges and a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 on the obstruction of justice charge. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday October 1, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. before United States District Judge Harold L. Murphy. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

This case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police officers with the Polk County Police Department, and law enforcement officers with the Northwest Georgia Criminal Enterprise Task Force.

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Garrett Pleads Guilty in Bomb Incident

RICHARD AUBREY GARRETT, III, 36, of Rome, Georgia, pleaded guilty today (November 23) in federal district court to multiple charges after he placed an improvised explosive device, or homemade bomb, at a convenience store in Rome.

According to Acting United States Attorney Yates and the information presented in court: On April 24, 2008, GARRETT left a bomb at the Kangaroo convenience store on Alabama Highway in Rome, where it was spotted by store clerk, who called 911. The bomb recovery and disposal unit responded and recovered the bomb using a robot and single-vent vessel. The bomb was X-rayed and found to be a hand grenade hull filled with an explosive substance and equipped with a fuse. The bomb squad safely detonated the bomb. GARRETT admitted to leaving the device in the store and did not indicate a motive.

Today GARRETT pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a bomb and to illegal possession of a bomb. He could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $500,000. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 29, 2010, at 1:30 p.m., before United States District Judge Harold L. Murphy.

This case is being investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Floyd County Police Department.

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Rome Man Charged With Tricking Employer into Paying More Than $4 Million for Non-Existent Timber

AARON FREEMAN, 49, of Rome, Georgia, and eight other Georgia men have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking part in a scheme that caused FREEMAN’s employer, Temple Inland Inc., to pay more than $4.8 million for timber that did not exist. FREEMAN and seven of his co-defendants made their initial appearances in federal court in Rome today before United States Magistrate Judge Walter E. Johnson.

“Temple Inland operates a paper mill outside of Rome that processes hundreds of truckloads of timber every day,” said Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “FREEMAN was a scale house operator who allegedly manipulated the scales at the paper mill to credit cooperating drivers with delivering non-existent truckloads of timber. Temple Inland, a major employer in northwest Georgia, was defrauded into paying more than $4.8 million for these phantom deliveries of timber, and the drivers shared that money with FREEMAN.”

According to Acting United States Attorney Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court, FREEMAN was a scale house operator at the Temple Inland paper mill in Floyd County between June 2003 and June 2006. FREEMAN allegedly learned how to manipulate the scale house computer system to produce two weight readings when a single truck passed through the paper mill’s scale – a reading for the weight of the timber actually delivered, and a second reading for a phantom load. FREEMAN then recruited drivers to take credit for the phantom loads, and the drivers shared their payments with FREEMAN. The defendants are charged as follows:

FREEMAN and KEVIN FIELDS, 31, of Forsyth, Georgia; CURTIS HART, 52, and JASON JOSEPH, 32, both of Macon; ROGER CARTHERN, 63, and ANDREW CARTHERN, 40, both of Jefferson; J. DAVID CARTHERN, 64, of Commerce; ROBERT FRANK FERGUSON, JR., 56, of Maysville; and GEORGE TATE, 40, of Hartwell, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The offense of wire fraud conspiracy is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. FREEMAN, FIELDS, HART, and JOSEPH are also charged with several counts of aiding and abetting each other to commit wire fraud, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

The indictment charges that between September 2004 and June 2006, as the result of FREEMAN’s manipulation of the scale house computer at the Temple Inland paper mill, the corporation paid approximately $3.35 million for phantom deliveries that FIELDS claimed to have delivered. The indictment charges that FIELDS shared this money with FREEMAN. The indictment further charges that FIELDS recruited JOSEPH, whom Temple Inland paid over $910,000 for phantom deliveries – when in fact, JOSEPH never made a single delivery. The indictment alleges that FIELDS instructed JOSEPH to keep 15 percent of that money for personal benefit and another 20 percent to pay his state and federal income taxes, and to give him the remaining 65 percent, which FIELDS shared with FREEMAN. The indictment also charges that FIELDS recruited his father, HART, whom Temple Inland paid approximately $111,000 for phantom deliveries.

Regarding other members of the conspiracy, the indictment charges that as the result of FREEMAN’s creation of phantom loads of timber, Temple Inland paid more than $313,000 to ROGER and ANDREW CARTHERN; more than $112,000 to DAVID CARTHERN and ROBERT FRANK FERGUSON; and more than $160,000 to GEORGE TATE, and all whom shared their money with FREEMAN.

FREEMAN, FIELDS and JOSEPH are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. The money laundering charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. The indictment charges that among other money-laundering activities, FIELDS bought a certificate of deposit in the amount of $850,000 using his share of proceeds from the conspiracy.

JOSEPH is the only defendant who did not make his initial appearance in federal court today. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 10:00 a.m. on November 9, 2009.

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

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“Career Criminal” Pleads Guilty to Armed Bank Robbery

ARTHANIEL SMITH JR., 37, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Rome to the armed bank robbery of the Wachovia Bank at 4580 Jimmy Lee Smith Parkway in Hiram, Georgia. Classified as an armed “career criminal,” because of an extensive criminal history, SMITH agreed to a sentence of over 40 years in prison.

Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “Today a career offender has been removed from the society he has victimized for more than fifteen years. This defendant’s long confinement in federal prison ensures that Georgia citizens will not again fall prey to his violent crimes.”

Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta, said, “The FBI is relieved to have such a career offender off the streets. I commend the observant witness who relayed vital information in this case to the responding law enforcement officers. It is this type of community involvement and partnership with law enforcement that will help keep their communities safe.”

According to Acting United States Attorney Yates and the information presented in court: SMITH admitted that on March 2, 2009, he and another male unlawfully entered the Wachovia Bank at 4580 Jimmy Lee Smith Parkway in Hiram, Georgia and hid inside the bank. The following morning, when the first employee of the day entered the bank, SMITH and his cohort, armed with handguns, confronted the employee and demanded money contained in the Bank's vault. After obtaining the funds, both men fled from the bank to a waiting vehicle. A concerned citizen observed the men flee the bank and reported the make, model and tag number of their vehicle. SMITH and his cohort were stopped by a Paulding County Sheriff's Deputy within ten minutes. All of the bank's funds were recovered from the vehicle, along with the gloves, masks and handguns used by the robbers. Both men subsequently confessed to committing the crime.

SMITH will be sentenced by United States District Court Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr. on December 17, 2009 at 10 a.m.

This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI.

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Former Polk County Jail Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Federal Civil Rights Charges

JOSHUA DAVID LOWE, 25, of Aragon, Georgia, a former sergeant at the Polk County Jail, pleaded guilty August 6 in federal court to a civil rights charge of using excessive force against an inmate in his custody.

United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, “We recognize that detention officers have a difficult job as they guard inmates in our jails and prisons. The vast majority of officers serve with honor and courage. But under no circumstances can we allow a detention officer to abuse his authority to commit an unnecessary and violent assault on an inmate. We are committed to investigating and prosecuting any law enforcement officer who engages in such criminal conduct.”

Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta, said, “We would like to thank Polk County Sheriff Kelly McClendon and his administration for not only recognizing the seriousness of the crime committed by Detention Officer Lowe but also in bringing it to the attention of the FBI. It is this type of leadership within law enforcement that brings credit to the entire criminal justice system.”

Polk County Sheriff Kelly McClendon said, “We in law enforcement are held to a high standard. It is our duty and responsibility to ensure to the people we protect that whatever circumstances we face that our training and oath as law enforcement officers are held to the laws given to us by the Constitution of the United States and the State of Georgia.”

According to United States Attorney Nahmias and the information in court: LOWE admitted during the guilty plea hearing that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer on February 7, 2009, when he unnecessarily and repeatedly struck an inmate in his head and face while the inmate was strapped in a restraint chair. LOWE agreed that his conduct resulted in bodily injury to the inmate and violated federal law and the constitutional right of the Polk County inmate not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law.

A number of LOWE's fellow detention officers witnessed the incident and came forward to report that LOWE had gone too far with his use of force against the inmate. One of the detention officers who witnessed the assault told federal authorities that he "saw blood everywhere" and that the inmate was “spewing blood” after he was attacked by LOWE. Another detention officer told an FBI agent that LOWE's assault on the inmate was unjustified and “horrible.”

LOWE is scheduled to be sentenced in Rome by Senior United States District Court Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr. on October 15, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. LOWE faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.

This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI and the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

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