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Wisconsin man sentenced for faking financial documents to obtain semi trucks

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A Wisconsin man was sentenced to prison for a financial fraud scheme that he orchestrated in order to obtain semi trucks and trailers, official say.

On October 17, 2024, Robert E. Carter, 45, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Carter was convicted in July 2024 on charges of wire fraud and attempted wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Officials say that the fraud scheme began in 2018 when Carter feigned interest in purchasing a Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, trucking company, telling lies about his private jets and yachts as he convinced the owners that he wanted to buy the company for $10 million.

Carter sent the trucking company owners a letter of intent to purchase the company which required the company to hand over to him sensitive financial information.

Carter later backed out of the deal, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but he held on to the trucking company’s financial records.

In 2020, Carter allegedly altered the Fond du Lac trucking company’s financial records and submitted then to a leasing company in order to fraudulently obtain two semi trucks and three trailers.

While in the process of defrauding the leasing company, officials say that “Carter simultaneously downloaded financial statements from the internet that belonged to a charitable trust in Iowa. Again, Carter intentionally changed these financial statements so the documents appeared to belong to Carter’s trust. Carter then submitted the fake trust financial statements to a second equipment leasing company in an attempt to fraudulently lease ten more semi trucks.”

During sentencing, the court heard about Carter’s previous fraud convictions.

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the U.S. Trustee for the Western District of Wisconsin.

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