A Valparaiso man got one year of probation Wednesday — including six months on house arrest — after he admitted defrauding an Indiana Department of Environmental Management oil storage cleanup program.
That included continuing to bill the state $45,000 for reimbursement for a year after one contractor died, filings show.
Alan Jones, 55, pleaded guilty in January in the U.S. District Court in Hammond to wire fraud.
His lawyer Visvaldis Kupsis said Thursday that Jones admitted he signed off on the paperwork, but didn’t pocket any of the money. He said the owner took the money, who was not indicted.
As part of his sentence, Jones will have to repay $123,000 to IDEM, along with a $5,000 fine.
Court filings show Jones worked for two environmental firms in Chesterton, including Thompson Environmental, Inc., which gas stations hired to fix and upgrade leaky underground storage tanks.
Indiana state records indicate Jones was listed as a vice president. It showed the firm was “voluntarily dissolved” around 2020. A listed number was disconnected.
Authorities allege Jones submitted fraudulent applications from February 2018 to October 2019 to IDEM’s Excess Liability Trust Fund for reimbursement.
Court documents allege Jones filed for $65,000 over what was needed for installing an environmental remediation trailer in LaPorte in June 2018. He filed for an additional $10,000 for an equipment removal job in May 2019 in Valparaiso.
In paperwork, Jones listed a contractor as an employee of Thompson Environmental to get a higher reimbursement, documents allege. When the man died in September 2018, Jones continued to say he was still working so the company received $45,000. He also claimed a second contractor was an employee and filed for reimbursement for $30,000 after the man stopped working in August 2018.
Filings allege Jones also inflated his own timesheets.
“Alan Jones participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain public money from the State of Indiana,” Acting U.S. Attorney M. Scott Proctor said in a release. “This district is committed to prosecuting those who defraud government programs.
The U.S. EPA and IDEM investigated the case.