BIRMINGHAM – A Gadsden man pleaded guilty today to mail fraud in connection with more than $100,000 in fake invoices for insulating blankets that were supposed to be supplied to the Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance announced.

Daniel Gene Sieber II, 40, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins to one mail fraud count prosecutors filed against him in May. The maximum sentence for the mail fraud charge is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

ccording to Sieber’s plea agreement, he was the manager for a Gadsden office of Shaw Field Services, a subsidiary of Louisiana-based Shaw Group Inc., which had a contract with TVA in 2004 to provide insulating blankets for some TVA power plants. Shaw Field Services was bought and became Analytic Stress Relieving in 2005.
           
Between June 2005 and June 2007, Sieber and an accomplice created fraudulent invoices for insulating blankets and submitted them to Shaw Field Services/Analytic Stress Relieving. The invoices were from a fictitious vendor in Albertville, according to Sieber’s plea agreement.

Sieber knew the invoices were fraudulent and that Shaw Field Services/Analytic Stress Relieving had not received insulating blankets from the straw company, the plea agreement says. Sieber submitted $106,662 in fraudulent invoices to his company, which paid the straw company $91,855. The proceeds were then divided between Sieber and his accomplice.

The TVA Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Estes is prosecuting it.

 

Return to Top