ConAgra Employee Sentenced for Misappropriating Funds for Personal Use

Employee to Serve 41 Months; Pay Over $600,000 in Restitution

Chief Judge Laurie Smith at the U.S. District Court in Omaha, Neb., has sentenced a former ConAgra employee to three and a half years in prison and ordered restitution of $605,592 of funds he misappropriated to personal use. According to court documents, Donald Wilson was sentenced to 41 months in prison and supervised release for a term of three years. Wilson is being allowed to self-surrender on April 6.

While working from Bothell, Wash., as vice president of sales and marketing for ConAgra’s Western region of the United States, Wilson submitted apparently false invoices from 2007 through 2011 for promotional trips and materials. Invoices were submitted from companies owned by friends of Wilson, one of which was a trucking firm that does not provide such services or materials. ConAgra paid the invoices to the trucking firm totaling $521,757 and paid $83,835 to another friend-owned firm, according to the indictment. The money from ConAgra’s payments was then given back to Wilson in the form of cash, or used to pay for trips and other expenses related to a softball team Wilson and these friends were associated with.

Employers need to have systems in place and adequate internal auditing controls to prevent such stealing from occurring. For more information contact the Goosmann Law Firm or contact us at info@goosmannlaw.com or (712) 226-4000.