Man sentenced to federal prison for 5 year scheme to defraud employer

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - A man has been sentenced to three and a half years to federal prison after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of filing a false federal income tax return, and two counts of failure to file a federal income tax return.

According to court documents, 45-year-old James Cox as the Parts Manager for a multi-state business from March 2015 to November 2020. During that time, Cox was responsible for ordering parts, signing for them when they arrived, and logging them into inventory.

Officials say from 2018 to 2020, Cox used his position to fraudulently order parts and products that the business did not need using funds belonging to the business. Cox then stole the products from the business and sold them on eBay without authorization.

In total, Cox sold around 400 stolen items on eBay, resulting in a total loss of $431,557.61 to his employer.

According to a release, Cox also did not report the income from these sales on his 2018 tax return and failed to file returns for 2019 and 2020.

The total tax loss to the U.S. government amounted to $106,690.00.