Indiana biodiesel bosses plead guilty to fraud

Two men pleaded guilty in a US court earlier this week to conspiracy, fraud and making false statements related to the US government's controversial policy designed to boost use of renewable fuels, according to court documents and a report in Reuters.

The media agency stated that the case comes in the last four weeks of a US presidential election campaign as the petroleum industry presses for reform or repeal of a program that has drawn criticism from big oil and environmentalists alike. The US government is due to finalise next year's biofuel mandates by the end of November.

Fred Witmer, 46, and Gary Jury, 58, co-owners of Indiana biodiesel plant Triton Energy, pleaded guilty in an Indiana court on Wednesday to defrauding the US government's renewable fuel support program and a tax credit program, the US Department of Justice said on Wednesday (12 October, 2016).

Jury and Witmer together owe more than $64 million for wire fraud and conspiracy in a scheme to fraudulently produce biofuels credits used to comply with the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) from 2012 to 2015, according to court documents filed in Indiana last month and the Reuters report.

The charges filed by the US Justice Department said Witmer knowingly sold processed corn oil for uses that do not qualify under the program, then still collected biofuels credits on the fuel. He and Jury also conspired to obtain a tax credit they were not entitled to, the filings said.

Counsel for Witmer declined to comment while Jury's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters. Witmer will serve 57 months in prison and Jury will serve 30 months as part of their plea agreements, the Justice Department said in a statement.