Ripon man among 6 charged with defrauding wind farm operator

A Ripon man is among six defendants charged in a federal grand jury indictment with defrauding a wind power company of more than $2.2 million.

Jeffrey Reilley, 53, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud. Two co-defendants are formerly of Lathrop, Timothy Chapin, 38, and Manuel Agueros, 37. Chapin and Agueros face multiple counts of wire or mail fraud, as well as counts of conspiracy to commit fraud or money laundering. The remaining three defendants face similar charges, Paul Fournier, 34, of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Jorge Eguiluz 46, of Stockton, and Robert Lautenslager, 38, of Castro Valley.

The indictment was unsealed Monday, four days after it was returned by the grand jury in Sacramento, and announced by U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.

According to the indictment, Chapin, Reilley, and Agueros worked for a Florida-based energy generation company that operated wind farms in the Solano County town of Birds Landing. Chapin, a senior business technician, and supervisors Reilley and Agueros executed a scheme that caused the generation of purchase orders for parts and services not actually needed at the wind farms.

Those purchase orders were sent to three Arizona-based shell companies that had been set up by Fournier. The shell companies had no facilities and provided no actual products or services, the indictment says, but submitted fraudulent invoices to the energy generation company and were paid just under $2 million.

Also according to the indictment, Chapin, Agueros and Eguiluz engaged in a similar scheme using a company called “J. Eguiluz Labor Service LLC” as the shell company to submit fraudulent invoices, with yet another shell company used by Chapin and Lautenslager.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nirav Desai is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The money laundering charges are subject to fines of up to $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the money laundering transactions.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Ripon man among 6 charged with defrauding wind farm operator."