From staff reports MUSKOGEE – Two Broken Arrow residents were sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay almost $3.8 million in restitution for defrauding a company where one of the thieves worked.
Brad William Ritter and Toby Le Mills, both 51 and both from Broken Arrow, pleaded guilty April 3 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Ritter was sentenced to 41 months of incarceration; Mills, 33 months in prison.
The court also ordered the defendants to pay $3,797,500 in restitution. In addition, the court entered a money judgment against Mills in the amount of $1,059,958.00, ordered forfeiture of $697,863.67 in funds seized from Ritter, and entered a forfeiture money judgment against Ritter in the amount of $2,029,678.33.
Ritter and Mills were allowed to remain on previous bond with conditions of release and are to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility by June 23 to serve their non-paroleable sentences of incarceration.
According to investigators, beginning in at least 2018 and continuing until January 2022, Ritter and Mills conspired to defraud an employee-owned business operating in Broken Arrow. Ritter, who worked as an executive for the company, used his position to submit false invoices on behalf of a business set up in Mills’ name. The invoices billed the business for services that Mills’ company never performed, resulting in $3,797,500 in fraudulent payments made to Ritter and Mills during that time.
The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS-Criminal Investigation.