(The following story by Bob Cox appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on January 20, 2010.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Two Kansas men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth on wire fraud charges in connection with a conspiracy to bilk BNSF Railway through a scheme of false invoices.
A former BNSF employee, Mathew Wyrick, 35, of Olathe, Kan., and his father-in-law, Robert Steele, 64, of Gardner, Kan., are charged in the one-count indictment.
Steele turned himself in to U.S. authorities Friday in Kansas City, Kan., said Kathy Colvin, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Fort Worth. He was ordered to appear before Magistrate Judge Charles Bleil on Jan. 29 in Fort Worth. Wyrick has not been apprehended, Colvin said.
According to the indictment, issued last week, Wyrick and Steele submitted false invoices to BNSF totaling more than $1.8 million from about March 2005 to August 2007.
Wyrick, who had the power to authorize payment of invoices by BNSF’s Fort Worth headquarters, organized the scheme and recruited vendors to submit the invoices, officials said. Steele’s company billed BNSF for work either not done or charged at vastly inflated prices, which Wyrick approved for payment, according to the indictment. Steele allegedly paid Wyrick more than $600,000 in the scheme, the indictment alleges.
Steele’s company submitted invoices over two years totaling $328,948 for hazardous waste disposal associated with a railroad project. The indictment said no hazardous waste was involved and the total cost to Steele‘s company of disposing of the actual materials was less than $10,000. If convicted, the two defendants could face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
John Ambler, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the parent company of BNSF, declined to comment.