Christian County Sheriff Joey Kyle pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling county funds and laundering the proceeds of a political supporter’s investment fraud scheme.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Kyle, who was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, agreed to immediately resign his post and submit to one year and one day in federal prison without parole. He also must pay Christian County $50,290 in restitution and forfeit to the government a judgment of $71,640, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
“This elected sheriff stole taxpayers’ money and treated the county coffers as his own personal piggy bank,” Dickinson said in the release. “Sheriff Kyle took money that was supposed to be for firearms and other supplies needed by his deputies. But his greed wasn’t limited to public dollars or to the taxpayers whose trust he betrayed. He also abused his position to promote a political supporter’s investment fraud scheme, and even used the criminal profits from the scheme to help bankroll his re-election.”
Kyle, 53, of Ozark, admitted to embezzling $50,290 from Christian County by submitting 22 fraudulent invoices and purchases orders for goods and services that were never provided between Jan. 1, 2011, and Oct. 14, 2014.
To accomplish the scheme, Kyle submitted requisitions to Nixa-based EDI Plus LLC, which was contracted by the county to provide equipment, such as firearms and ammunition, to the sheriff’s department from 2011 to 2014. Kyle, who was given cash by EDI for his personal use, submitted fraudulent requisitions for goods and services he said were supplied by EDI. No such goods and services were supplied, and the requisitions actually repaid EDI for the money Kyle received, according to the release.
In the guilty plea, Kyle also admitted he received $21,350 for his role in promoting an investment fraud scheme led by another person, identified as Subject No. 2 in court documents.
Don Ledford, spokesman for Dickinson, declined to provide information about Subject No. 2.
“I can’t provide any information beyond what’s in the public record and can’t comment upon Subject No. 2’s identity or that aspect of the investigation,” he said via email.
Kyle admitted he referred potential investors, distributed promotional materials and served as a personal reference for Subject No. 2, who is accused of running a fraud scheme through his companies from January 2008 to October 2014, according to the release.
Subject No. 2 gave Kyle 50,000 share in one of his companies - which were usually sold at $1 each - to tell potential investors he personally had invested funds and formed an investment group, comprising deputy sheriffs and others, to invest in the companies. However, Kyle did not actually invest personal funds in the companies, according to the plea agreement.
In 2011, the sheriff founded Five Rivers Management LLC to serve as a law enforcement training company. Kyle admitted he used the company as a front to hide the source of funds from Subject No. 2. The investment scheme leader also made a $3,000 contribution, using funds from victims, toward Kyle’s political campaign on July 1, 2012, according to the release.
According to the Missouri secretary of state’s website, Kyle is listed as the registered agent of Five Rivers Management. The listed organizer is John Truman of Springfield-based income tax and retirement income planning firm Truman & Associates Inc. According to
TrumanandAssociates.com, the founder of the company, Don Truman, started the firm in 1980 while working as a sheriff's deputy.
Kyle’s sentencing hearing will be scheduled following the presentence investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Kelleher and Steven Mohlhenrich, and it was investigated by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
On May 6, Marty Brickey, 44, of Republic, was indicted on charges related to a $14.5 million investment fraud scheme, according to a separate news release from Dickinson’s office. It’s unclear if the charges against Brickey, a reserve deputy sheriff in Christian County, are related to the Kyle case.[[In-content Ad]]
