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Pottawattamie County Resident Sentenced to Prison for Scheme to Defraud Former Employer

News

March 31st, 2017 by Ric Hanson

Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said Friday (today), a judge has sentenced 40-year old Bradley R. Cornelsen, of Council Bluffs, to four-years in prison, based on his convictions on five-counts of wire fraud. United States District Court Judge Stephanie M. Rose today (Friday) also ordered Cornelsen to serve 3 years of supervised release to follow the term of imprisonment, and ordered him to pay more than $1.4-million in restitution to the victim of his scheme to defraud.

A jury convicted Cornelsen at his trial on November 1st, 2016, finding him guilty of five counts of wire fraud. The case was the result of an investigation by law enforcement of Cornelsen’s scheme to defraud his former employer, MV Transportation, where he was employed as Chief Financial Officer.

The scheme involved paying himself large, unauthorized monetary bonuses amounting to more nearly $298,000. Additionally, in furtherance of the scheme, Cornelsen used his company credit card and company manual checks for multiple personal expenses, including Rolex watches, collector baseball cards, Louis Vutton luggage, and furniture for his personal residences in Council Bluffs and Okoboji, Iowa. The estimated loss to MV Transportation arising from this fraudulent conduct was determined to be approximately $1.4 million dollars.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.