Fraud related to Joplin’s tornado a year ago figured into both the prison sentence a Springfield man was assessed Wednesday in federal court and the charging of two contractors from Lebanon in Jasper County Circuit Court.
U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr assessed Justin R. Compton, 31, of Springfield, five years and 11 months in a federal prison without parole for posing as a Joplin tornado victim while writing more than $160,000 worth of bad checks at more than 50 businesses in Southwest Missouri.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri said the sentence was the longest term recommended under federal sentencing guidelines applicable to Compton’s conviction for bank fraud.
The judge ordered that Compton’s sentence run consecutively to a two-year term that the defendant must complete for violating conditions of his supervised release on two previous fraud convictions. The judge also ordered that he pay $46,665 in restitution.
When Compton pleaded guilty to the charge Dec. 6, he acknowledged having opened a checking account at Regions Bank in Ozark two days before the tornado in Joplin on May 22, 2011, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He then began writing checks without having deposited any funds in the account.
The checks were written for goods and services at businesses in Greene, Jasper, Lawrence, Barry and Taney counties, with the defendant frequently persuading the businesses to take the checks by falsely representing himself as a tornado victim and an Army sergeant. The U.S. attorney’s office said that when the checks began being returned for insufficient funds, Compton again falsely represented his family as victims of the tornado to a bank official.
Compton also wrote bad checks on accounts opened at Higher One Bank, Armed Forces Bank and Academy Bank. The U.S. attorney’s office put the number of bad checks written on the four accounts by the defendant at 225 and the loss to the victims at $160,672.
In a separate and unrelated tornado-fraud matter, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed charges Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court against Jeffrey Wolfson and Gloria Diane Schoeller, the operators of Insurexx LLC, of Lebanon.
Wolfson and Schoeller are accused of defrauding three Joplin homeowners of about $38,000 through insurance claims adjusting and home repair services. The attorney general’s office said in a news release that the contractors accepted insurance checks from the homeowners without performing promised home repairs.
The state alleges that Wolfson and Schoeller falsely promised that homeowners would be reimbursed for payments they made to subcontractors and that the repair work would begin immediately. They also acted as insurance adjusters without being licensed by the Missouri Department of Insurance, the attorney general’s office said.
The contractors are charged with three counts of stealing by deceit, three counts of unlawful merchandising practices, three counts of insurance fraud and two counts of public adjusting without a license. Schoeller also has been charged in Laclede County with interference with a civil investigative demand.
The attorney general’s office said Wolfson will be prosecuted as an alleged prior and persistent offender, and could face up to 15 years in prison on each of the six most serious counts. Schoeller could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on each of her three most serious counts.
Storm chasers
THE MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE warns that unscrupulous contractors commonly referred to as “storm chasers” will often try to get victims of storm damage to sign a contract allowing them to negotiate with the victims’ insurance company for repair work. The contractors then perform shoddy work or no work at all.
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Local courts dealing with tornado-fraud cases
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
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Rick Rescorla award named for hero of Vietnam War, 9-11 terror attacks
The Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is named for a 62-year-old vice president of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. who directed an evacuation of the company’s 2,700-person workforce in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011.
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SLIDESHOW: One year later, One day of unity, updated
Photos from a day of events commemorating the May 22, 2011 tornado anniversary
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Community gearing up for two-year anniversary ceremony this afternoon
With the playground full of children, it could be any other day at Joplin’s Cunningham Park, but the white tents popping up and neat rows of white chairs lined up nearby indicate something more is happening today.
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Farmers Insurance teams up with Rebuild Joplin
Farmers Insurance announced Tuesday that the company will team up with Rebuild Joplin for an initiative to help the community complete its recovery efforts. The company already has placed one of its executives in Joplin, and it is pledging additional funds and volunteer hours by company workers to go toward the city’s recovery.
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Joplin man continues struggle to recover two years after tornado
As the Joplin tornado passed overhead, sweeping the house at 2430 S. Pennsylvania Ave. away in its wake, there was a moment of calm. Delbert Mcguirk was on his back in the basement, where he had sought shelter along with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren. In that moment of relative quiet, he stared up into the eye of the tornado.
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Storms cause damage throughout the Four States
Four-State Area residents hunkered down twice Monday to ride out tornadoes and powerful spring storms, then went to work cleaning up. The worst damage from Monday night’s storm was being reported in Ottawa County, Okla., near Wyandotte. That followed a report of an EF-1 tornado early Monday morning near Carthage.
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Two plead guilty to post-tornado wire theft
Two defendants pleaded guilty Monday to stealing copper wire from utility poles in the wake of the May 22, 2011, tornado that struck Joplin. Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin, and Nycoa K. Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., entered open pleas of guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to felony counts of theft from a public utility.
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FACES OF RECOVERY: 176,869 volunteers help put Joplin together again
They initially came in droves, pouring into Joplin by the thousands during the months following the May 2011 tornado to clear debris, clean up damaged homes and businesses and distribute donations of food, water, clothing and other necessities.
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Therapy dogs
Any question that Louie was bred to put people as ease is put to rest when the golden retriever trots over to where a visitor sits and puts his head on their knee, the dog’s eyes filled with a gentle affection.
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Nova Kluseman and Jeanne Morrow
Nova Kluseman has staked her claim on Wednesdays at the Mercy medical office clinics where she volunteers. The staff at Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri will know it’s Thursday when they see Jeanne Morrow walk through the door.
- More May 2011 Joplin tornado Headlines
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