INDIANAPOLIS — Five Hoosiers have been sentenced in a massive money-laundering scheme.
John Williams, Ernie Perkins, Donald Landis, Robert Finch, and Shalonda Coleman are all spending between 18 months and nine years in prison, for trying to defraud a bank and insurance company in Pennsylvania.
“White-collar criminals are thieves who steal through position and influence,” said acting US Attorney John Childress. “White-collar crime like tax evasion and money laundering ultimately affects all Hoosiers and this office is committed to aggressively prosecuting these fraudsters.”
Williams is said to have been working with the others to create fake invoices on under-budget construction projects in Indy, and once the bank paid off those invoices he would then kickback money to the others involved. Childress says Williams even used kickback money to help pay for his daughters’ wedding.
Perkins owns Remarkable Creative Enterprises, and that he and Coleman are also charged with using the U.S. Mail in a separate scheme to defraud a Pennsylvania-based insurance company. Investigators say Coleman used her job as a claims processor to cause the insurance company to mail checks to Perkins’ company.
Childress says Coleman disguised the payments to RCE as for work performed for the company’s insurance clients, but no work was ever done. Perkins would then deposit the checks into RCE accounts and kick back a percentage to Coleman.
Williams, Perkins, Finch, and Landis were all convicted of theft and conspiring to launder money stolen from the bank.
“Even if you use sophisticated means to steal millions of dollars, you are still a thief, and this sentence sends a clear message of the consequences of such greed,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan. “The FBI will continue to work with the IRS and other law enforcement partners to focus our efforts on these white-collar criminals and ensure they are brought to justice.”
