Raleigh County woman sentenced for federal theft crime

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — A woman from Beckley was sentenced on Thursday, September 5, 2024 to five years of federal probation and ordered to pay $168,729.13 in restitution for theft from federal programs.

According to a press release from The United States Department of Justice and court documents in 2018, Jennifer Douglas, 48, of Beckley was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Citizens Conservation Corp (CCC), a non-profit organization. She was operating this organization at the time when it made approximately $111,221.09 from the United States Department of Interior National Park Service (NPS). Douglas was supposed to use that money for hiring, recruiting, and placing two interns in the organization for 13 months, per agreement with NPS.

The press release continued saying that Douglas admitted that CCC did not use the funds as intended, but instead ordered an accountant to take the funds and put it into an account that the CCC used. Approximately $108,752.60 was used fraudulently by Douglas, getting direction and approval from CCC Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin to put the funds into the CCC account, making them unallowable operating expenses for the CCC.

According to the release, Douglas was in charge of CCC’s daily operations as COO, and was also responsible for overseeing its departments. Douglas only reported to Martin, as per agreement to report to him. From in or around 1998 until in or around the summer of 2018, CCC’s source of income had been from a multimillion-dollar contract with the State of West Virginia to operate the Courtesy Patrol roadside assistance service. In 2018, they lost that contract.

Court documents stated that after the loss of that contract, Douglas admitted that the company was badly financially unstable at that point. Douglas’s position at the time, and the direction of Martin gave them the ability to fraudulently use the money from CCC. Douglas further admitted, with Martin’s direction, that she took out $59,978.13 from incomplete tasks, per agreement with NPS and intentionally used the money in a fraudulent matter.

On January 12, 2024, Robert Martin, 67, of Beckley, pleaded guilty to fraudulent receipt of property from a debtor. Martin also admitted paying himself after CCC filed for bankruptcy on April 3, 2019. He also admitted that CCC knew and used the amount of $108,752.60 in a fraudulent manner.

Martin was sentenced on June 28, 2024, to five years of federal probation and ordered to pay $205,802.49 in restitution.

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