On Monday, the former director of a California truck driving school was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for defrauding the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of more than $4 million.
Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California also ordered Robert Waggoner, 59, of Canyon Country, California, to spend three years of supervised release after completing his sentence.
Following his indictment in April 2017, Waggoner pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud in February 2020, after first filing a not guilty plea.
Emmit Marshall, 54, or “Amit Marshall,” of Woodland Hills, California, was the owner of the Alliance School of Trucking, which was based in Chatsworth. In October 2020, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison and ordered to restitution of $4.1 million.
According to the US attorney’s office, Marshall pleaded guilty to five wire fraud charges in July 2019.
Although AST has since closed, Marshall was still on the phone with FreightWaves in late July 2019. Marshall stated at the time that his CDL school was still open for business but that veterans were no longer accepted as pupils.
What went wrong?
According to court records, Waggoner and Marshall recruited eligible veterans under the Post-9/11 GI Bill and persuaded over 100 veterans to enroll in their school by promising them “they could earn housing and other costs from the VA without attending the programs.”
Marshall and Waggoner “created and submitted fraudulent enrollment certifications,” according to Marshall’s plea agreement, knowing that the vast majority of veterans enrolled at AST did not intend to attend any portion of the trucking school’s programs, which included a 160-hour Tractor Trailer and Safety class and a 600-hour Select Driver Development program.
Prosecutors claim that Marshall and Waggoner allegedly produced student folders that contained “forged documentation.”
Marshall’s guilty deal claims that once AST was made aware of the investigation, Marshall, Waggoner, and others at the trucking school “removed bogus documents from student files, and Marshall later ordered that these files be destroyed.”
According to federal prosecutors, the VA paid AST $2.3 million in tuition and fee payments over a four-year period for veterans who did not attend classes. Veterans who did not take courses at AST received about $1.9 million in educational benefits straight from the VA.
Prosecutors noted in his sentencing memorandum, “[Marshall] gained the most from this activity, pocketing approximately $1 million for jewelry, a cruise, a trip to Hawaii, property taxes on his Woodland Hills mansion, purchase of a Ford F-150, and purchase of semi-tractor trailers for a new business.”
It’s unknown if any of the veterans who received the bogus payments were prosecuted or punished.
