BECKLEY, W.Va. — A Beckley man was sentenced to five years of federal probation for fraudulent receipt of property from a debtor.
Robert Martin, 67, was ordered on Friday to pay $205,802.49 in restitution on top of the five years on probations.
Martin previously served as the CEO of Citizens Conservation Corp (CCC) after he formed the company in 1993. CCC operated the Courtesy Patrol roadside assistance service for the State of West Virginia since 1998, and that’s when the company started to see profits. The contract with West Virginia was lost in 2018, and after that, CCC filed for bankruptcy.
Martin testified at a bankruptcy creditor meeting in May of 2019, saying CCC wasn’t generating an income, therefore, he was not receiving a salary. Martin also testified that he expected CCC to be paid on receivables owed to the company. In response, the Southern District of West Virginia informed Martin that he could not take a salary as a controlling officer without U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval.
Later that month, Martin’s company was paid $41,000 from the West Virginia Treasury, to which the money was deposited to the CCC company bank account. Following that, Martin transferred a total of $50,000 from that account to a separate account at a different bank. In that process, Martin paid over $30,000 to himself through six different checks.
Martin admitted that he did not receive approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the payments made, and also admitted that he did not do so because he intended to hide the payments from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Martin further admitted that he was aware that his company, CCC, knowingly misspent over $100,000 that it got from the U.S. Department of Interior National Park Service for a three-week period between September and October of 2018.
Additionally, in 2014, CCC came to an agreement with the National Park Service to hire and train young adults for internship programs at national parks throughout America. In the agreement, CCC received over $110,000 to train and hire those interns, but Martin admitted that the company never hired anyone with the funding. Instead, CCC drew down those funds to nearly $2,500 for operating expenses once the contract with the State of West Virginia went up. Martin also admitted that he was aware of the misapplication of those funds.
Along with Martin, Jennifer Douglas, CCC’s most recent CEO, pleaded guilty to theft from federal programs on May 6 of this year, also admitted that the company knowingly misspent the nearly $110,000 received from the National Park Service. She awaits her sentencing.
Martin owes $37,072.76 to the Bankruptcy Estate of CCC and $168,729.73 to the National Park Service. Martin paid $37,072.76 owed to the Bankruptcy Estate two weeks ago.
Story by Aaron Parker, MetroNews