Atlantic man pleads guilty to wire fraud
By Jeff Lundquist Atlantic News Telegraph Publisher 3/24/2020
United States District Judge has accepted a guilty plea from Atlantic businessman Larry Scott Fulk to one count of wire fraud for swapping out high mileage odometers with lower lower mileage ones without disclosing that to potential buyers.
Fulk, owner of Second Street Repair in Atlantic, had been facing three counts of wire fraud for selling vehicles out of state in California and Virginia and 15 counts of odometer fraud. Under the plea agreement, filed Feb. 21 and accepted last week, Fulk admits that he “knowingly devised a scheme to defraud the individual buyers by replacing the odometer cluster of the used car with another odometer cluster that had lower mileage. Defendant’s scheme to defraud sought to obtain money from the individual buyers by falsely representing the car to have lower mileage than the actual mileage of the car.”
The agreement goes on to state, “(the) Defendant advanced, furthered, and carried out the scheme by transmitting writings and other information by means of a wire communication in interstate commerce when he posted and advertised the used cars with a false mileage amount and inflated price.
The crime carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison; a maximum fine of $250,000; and a term of supervised release of up to three years. A mandatory special assessment of $100 per count of conviction also must be imposed by the sentencing court. The parties in the case have agreed to a sentencing guideline of between 12 and 18 months and the government has not to advocate for sentence higher than six months in prison — although the actual sentence will be determined by judge who does not have to follow the recommendations.
Sentencing is set for July 9 at 1 p.m.
Original article posted here