Former Airman Sentenced for False Statements and Wire Fraud
Anchorage, Alaska – United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that a former airman was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage for making a false statement to the United States and wire fraud.
On January 28, 2011, Bruce Adam Decker, 40, a resident of Palmer, Alaska, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to five years probation, 250 hours of community work service, and to pay $28,661 in restitution to the Air Force. Decker previously paid $3,737 in restitution to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Decker pled guilty to the two felony counts in September 2010.
According to information presented to the court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Sayers-Fay, following his discharge from the military, Decker lied to the Air Force and Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development to obtain money to which he was knew he was not entitled. Decker’s largest fraud was telling the Air Force that he had completed a “do it yourself” move (“DITY move”) of his family’s household goods from Alaska to Missouri in January 2009. In fact, Decker had loaded up cement bags from Lowe’s in a moving truck, had the cement-laden truck weighed, and then returned the cement bags. Decker then submitted the false DITY move claim with an inaccurate weight ticket, and thereby caused the Air Force to pay him $21,634.97, to which he was not entitled. Decker also lied to the Air Force by submitting a voucher claiming that his family had a made a one-way final journey to Missouri when in fact they had not. This second false statement cost the Air Force $7,026.94.
Law enforcement confronted Decker with his fraud in early March 2009. One month later, Decker finally resolved to move out-of-state and drove the first shipment of his goods the lower 48. After that time, however, Decker committed wire fraud by continuing to collect unemployment benefits from the State of Alaska, which he repeatedly assured through online applications that he had not traveled and had not moved. These lies cost the State of Alaska to pay Decker $3,736 in benefits that he should not have received.
Ms. Loeffler commended the work of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development Unemployment Insurance Investigations Unit , which led to the successful prosecution of Decker.
