Former Taylor Ridge Couple Sentenced in Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, and Money Laundering Charges
Davenport, IA- On January 16, 2009, Julie Beasley, formerly of Taylor Ridge, Illinois, ex-wife of former Quad City Times building and maintenance manager Earl Beasley, was sentenced to 96 months imprisonment, and her ex-husband Earl Beasley was sentenced to 150 months of imprisonment on Conspiracy, Fraud and Money Laundering charges, announced United States Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker. United States District Judge John A. Jarvey also ordered them to pay 1.4 million dollars in restitution.
On January 25, 2008 Julie Beasley had been found guilty of 53 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering charges in January of 2008. Earlier on November 28, 2007, Earl Beasley had plead guilty to 75 counts in connection with the scheme to defraud the Quad City Times and its parent corporation, Lee Enterprises. Specifically, Julie Beasley was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 50 counts of mail fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Earl Beasley had plead guilty to 1 count of conspiracy, 49 mail frauds, 22 counts of mail fraud using a credit card, and 1 count of money laundering.
Julie Beasley and her now ex-husband, Earl Beasley, while the latter was the building and maintenance manager at the newspaper, created two non-existent corporations, R&E Enterprises and Protech Corporation, and, using fictitious letterhead and invoices, billed the Times for enormous amounts of non-existent maintenance supplies. Earl, in his capacity as maintenance manager, approved the invoices, which caused the Times or Lee Enterprises to dutifully cut checks to R&E or Protech. Earl also used a Quad City Times credit card account to purchase numerous items for personal use.
Earl and Julie Beasley had established post office boxes for the two companies in separate locations in the Quad Cities, where the checks were mailed. Julie then would collect the checks from the post office boxes and deposit them in bank accounts, also located separately for each bogus company. The evidence showed that Julie personally maintained the R&E and Protech bank accounts, in the process writing $400,000 worth of checks to herself or “Cash”.
The fraud came to light after a routine audit of Earl Beasley’s use of the Quad City Times credit card. A subsequent investigation by the Davenport Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division revealed the fraudulent invoices for maintenance supplies.
This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, and Davenport Police Department.