REDLAND COMPANY EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO $11 MILLION FRAUD

 

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announced that defendant, Frederick Bradley Nowell, Sr., aka “Brad Nowell,” pled guilty this morning to charges that he engaged in a long-term scheme to embezzle over $11 million from his former employer, The Redland Company.  The defendant was previously charged by Information with mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1341.

Sentencing has been scheduled for September 11, 2007. The defendant faces a statutory maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine, and mandatory restitution.

According to the Information and documents filed with the court during the plea hearing, from November 1997 to October 2006, defendant Nowell embezzled millions of dollars from his employer, The Redland Company, an engineering construction company with offices located at 23799 S.W. 167th Avenue, Homestead, Florida.  The Redland Company provides a broad range of services in the South Florida area, including road, bridge and sewage work, and excavation. The defendant was a high-level employee of the company, hired in or around September 1994 as an Administrative Vice President, and ultimately becoming Vice President in July 1996.  Nowell’s duties at The Redland Company included the preparation of work estimates, the negotiation of contracts and subcontracts, and the approval of invoices and payments.

According to the Information and documents filed with the court, from at least 1997 through 2006, the defendant embezzled money using the Redland Company operating account, on which Nowell had signatory authority.  Nowell issued millions of dollars in unauthorized checks from this account payable to “NGI Marine.”  Nowell then deposited the check in an account he personally controlled in the name Nowell Group, Inc.  Nowell used the money for travel, gambling and for his general personal benefit.

Nowell concealed the issuance of the unauthorized checks by falsifying the corresponding duplicates of the check to make it appear that the original check had been made payable to an established Redland Company vendor and  then attaching old, legitimate vendor’s invoices to the false duplicates as purported support for the checks.  To further conceal the fraud, Nowell would review the monthly bank account statements for the Redland Company and remove evidence of his wrongdoing.  Where the bank statements reflected checks issued to “NGI Marine,” Nowell would alter the documents to make it falsely appear that the checks had been issued to legitimate vendors.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Silverstein.  

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls . Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.