Florida man pleads guilty to biofuel fraud conspiracy

Date: Nov. 7, 2024

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MIAMI - A Florida man pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme that generated over $7 million in fraudulent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) renewable fuels credits and sought over $6 million in fraudulent tax credits connected to the purported production of biodiesel.

According to court documents, Royce Gillham was the general manager of a biofuel company based in Fort Pierce, Fla., that produced and sold renewable fuel and fuel credits and claimed to turn various feedstocks into biodiesel. When reporting the number of gallons produced to the IRS and EPA, Gillham and his employer vastly overstated their production volume in an effort to generate more credits. When auditors sought more information from the company, Gillham and his co-conspirators provided false information about their fuel production and customers.

Gillham pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and to filing false claims. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy count. A federal district court judge will determine whether to accept the plea agreement after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Hipkins of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Leslie Carroll of the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division (EPA-CID) made the announcement.

IRS-CI and EPA-CID investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Funk for the Southern District of Florida and Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman of the Environment and Natural Resources Division's Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attach￩ posts abroad.