A former North Carolina trucking company co-owner was sentenced to 15 months in prison for orchestrating an elaborate $500,000 wire fraud scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
Nathaniel Brad Moffit, 40, of Statesville, North Carolina, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Statesville on Thursday, after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in November.
He must serve two years of supervised release once he finishes his prison sentence. He also has been ordered to repay his former business partner, Brian Souther, more than $40,000, and loan company National Funding Inc. nearly $73,000.
According to court documents, Moffit and Souther were longtime friends and co-owned Piedmont Sales Service and Transport LLC (PSST), a small trucking company in Harmony, North Carolina. While running the day-to-day business operations, Moffit had access to the company’s bank accounts as well as Souther’s personal information. Federal prosecutors said Moffit engaged in a “Ponzi-style” scheme to defraud the company and his business partner by using Souther’s identity to take out three loans totaling more than $500,000.
Court filings state that while some of the money was used to pay PSST’s business expenses, Moffit also “used the proceeds for his own personal benefit.”
The fraud was discovered when Moffit was unable to repay the loans to National Funding, which “ruthlessly pursued” Souther for repayment.
PSST, which had 11 trucks and 17 drivers, was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2018.
