Felts released from federal custody; civil case continues

Michael Felts, the embattled businessperson behind BYOPizza, Taco Habitat, Hot Cluckers, Bourbon and Beale, White River Brewing Co. and other shuttered ventures, was released April 29 from federal custody.

Felts had been in an East Division Street halfway house as part of his 24-month sentence for felony COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program fraud, Bureau of Prisons records and federal court records show.

Diane Smith, executive director of The Alpha House in northeast Springfield, confirmed Felts was not at that facility this morning but declined to provide additional information, referring questions to the Bureau of Prisons.

Reached this morning by phone, Felts declined to comment for this article.

Litigation between Felts and the federal government continues in a civil case filed late last year, court records show. Felts is representing himself in the matter, according to court records.

Federal prosecutors allege Felts has failed to repay almost $8.2 million in restitution owed to taxpayers as part of the resolution to a criminal case federal prosecutors filed in September 2022. They also allege he transferred assets linked to White River Brewing Co. to his former wife in a bid to avoid paying the court-ordered restitution to the U.S. taxpayer.

That criminal case culminated in a July 2023 plea agreement. Felts pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting his involvement in a $14 million scheme running from January 2018 through September 2022. He agreed to pay restitution and forfeit property, according to past coverage.

Felts and a San Antonio resident who was not identified by court officials utilized Felts' businesses, as well as fake companies, to fraudulently receive loans under the Trump-era Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES Act, according to past coverage. Those loans included money distributed via the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The conspirators submitted fake and forged documents and did not use the loans for their intended purposes, according to past coverage.

In the ongoing civil case, a continuance order by District Judge Stephen R. Bough issued eight days before Felts’ release on April 29 scheduled a two-day bench trial for Nov. 22, 2027, at the federal courthouse in Springfield.

The scheduling move pushes back by roughly one year a November trial date previously ordered by Magistrate Judge Jill A. Morris, who was overseeing the case through Jan. 12, when she ordered the lawsuit to be transferred to another judge.

According to past coverage, in early January U.S. government prosecutors asked Morris for an entry of default against Felts for failing to respond to their civil complaint by a court-ordered deadline, Dec. 29, 2025.

Entry of default is an order entered in anticipation of a final judgment, formally recognizing that a party in a case has failed to plead or otherwise defend their side of the matter.

According to past coverage, the Jan. 9 court filing by federal prosecutors alleged that prior to his criminal sentencing in December 2024, but after Felts’ 2023 plea agreement, Felts transferred his ownership of an LLClinked to White River Brewing Co. on historic Commercial Street, to his then-wife, Jennifer Obert. Missouri secretary of state records show the transfer of WR Brewery Holdings LLC was formalized June 19, 2024. The two divorced in March 2025, federal court records show.

As part of Felts’ plea agreement, prosecutors stated in court filings that he agreed to pay restitution and that he promised to make no transfer of assets or property for the purpose of evading financial obligations created by the plea agreement. Federal prosecutors alleged that by transferring the White River Brewing Co. assets to Obert, “Felts sought to transfer the property to avoid paying his restitution judgment.”

On Jan. 16, roughly a week-and-a-half after prosecutors alleged Felts was trying to avoid paying restitution, and a day after he was assigned to preside over the case, Bough denied the government’s motion for entry of default against Felts.

In late April, attorneys for the federal government and an attorney for co-defendants comprising Felt’s former spouse, Jennifer Obert, along with WR Brewery Holdings LLC and White River Brewery LLC, asked Bough to continue the case through 2027.

In that April 21 continuance filing made by both parties, the government and Obert’s attorney said “defendant Obert is working to dispose of the property at issue with the consent of the Plaintiff [federal prosecutors] so that the parties may potentially amicably resolve this matter.”

Ryan Olson, Obert’s attorney, who also represents WR Brewery Holdings LLC, according to federal court records, declined to comment when reached by SBJ this morning.

Prior to the accusations leveled by federal prosecutors in September 2022, Felts had not been charged with any crimes, according to past reporting.