Dive summary:
- Rodney Hailey, the owner of Clean Green Fuel, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for fraudulently claiming his company converted waste vegetable oil into 23 million gallons of renewable fuel and then selling the renewable fuel credits for $9 million.
- Hailey has been convicted of eight counts of wire fraud, 32 counts of money laundering and two counts of violating the Clean Air Act.
- The investigation into Hailey started because a Baltimore County police detective working with Maryland’s federal financial crimes task force received a tip that Hailey had a large number of luxury cars parked in front of his house.
From the article:
“Any government program that is based on trust is vulnerable to a fraudster like Rodney Hailey,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “The only thing Rodney Hailey’s ‘Clean Green Fuel’ business produced was the dirty money he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.”
Judge Quarles enhanced Hailey’s sentence upon finding that he obstructed justice by concealing, selling and spending assets that were protected by court order. Judge Quarles also ordered Hailey to pay restitution of approximately $ 42.2 million to over 20 companies and forfeit $9.1 million in proceeds from the fraud, including cars, jewelry, his home and bank accounts, already seized by the government. ...
