Former Mattoon Business Owner Sentenced for Fraud Scheme

From the FBI, Springfield Division:

Former Mattoon Business Owner Sentenced to 16 Months in Federal Prison for Fraud Scheme

U.S. Attorney’s Office January 05, 2012

Central District of Illinois (217) 492-4450

— filed under: Fraud, Press Release, Springfield Top Stories

URBANA, IL—A former Mattoon, Ill., woman, Rebecca L. Shockley, has been ordered to serve 16 months in federal prison and pay restitution of more than $400,000 for defrauding a local bank and the Illinois Department of Revenue. Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey sentenced Shockley, 63, currently of Bradenton, Fl., yesterday. Shockley was ordered to report on Mar. 7, 2012, to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving her sentence.

According to court documents, Shockley was co-owner of Quality Truck and Auto (QTA), in Mattoon, Ill., which did business as Cross Country RV Center. Shockley acted as bookkeeper for the business which sold new and used recreational vehicles and related items.

On May 9, 2011, Shockley entered a plea of guilty to one count each of mail fraud and bank fraud. Shockley admitted that from March 2007 to December 2008, she pledged vehicles as collateral to both the bank and another lender. Shockley had entered into the loan agreement, known as a floor plan line of credit, with the bank in mid-1999. According to court documents, as the business’s financial condition deteriorated, QTA was unable to pay-off the secured loans it had received from the bank and the bank learned that the RVs that were supposed to be collateral had already been sold and the sales proceeds forwarded to the other lender.
Shockley further admitted that from July 2006 to December 2008, she under-reported the amounts subject to sales tax by $1.8 million. As a result, although QTA collected $249,915 in sales taxes from more than 100 buyers, Shockley admitted that she remitted only $134,812 of the collected sales taxes to the state of Illinois, and kept the remainder for her own use and benefit. In addition, Shockley admitted that she under-reported the taxable retail sales of QTA from 2006 to 2008.

Shockley was ordered to pay a total of $412,028 in restitution, consisting of $279,438 to the bank and $132,590 to the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The charges were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Illinois Department of Revenue. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller.