Biodiesel firm’s CEO sentenced to prison on two counts of federal tax evasion | WWMT
by NEWSCHANNEL 3
The former chief executive officer of the now-defunct Michigan BioDiesel was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of federal tax evasion.
John Gerald Oakley, 66, also was ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
The restitution includes $1.86 million in tax refunds improperly sent to Michigan BioDiesel and about $56,000 in personal federal taxes owed by Oakley, Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said in a written announcement on the sentencing released Monday. The sentencing was delivered in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan.
Oakley, a resident of Dimondale, Michigan, signed documents that claimed Michigan BioDiesel was producing “an alternative fuel mixture,” that would qualify as an excise tax-exempt fuel.
A co-defendant in the case, Tracy Darin Daniels, 50, of Mississippi, had already been sentenced to two years of probation based on his plea of guilty to misprision of a bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors said Daniels provided false documents to co-defendant Oakley, who then submitted them in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court case in the Western District of Michigan.