MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A former federal employee must report to prison May 31 to begin a five-year sentence for the theft of more than $6 million.
U.S. Attorney George Beck says the former director of the Agriculture Department's Rural Development offices in Bay Minette and Camden, 54-year-old Ricky Nelson Dawson of Autauga County, was sentenced Friday on a wire fraud conviction. The prosecutor says from 2007 to 2012, Dawson received $6.2 million in checks made out to "Rural Development" and then altered the checks to deposit them in a bank account he had opened. He used later checks to make payments that were supposed to be covered by the earlier checks.
Beck says the net amount taken was $3.8 million. A hearing to determine restitution has not been set.
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3/8/2013 4:22:38 PM (GMT -6:00)