Brothers Sentenced in Federal Court for Selling and Transporting Stolen Used Cooking Oil from Restaurants in Rhode and Massachusetts
More Than 200,000 Gallons of Stolen Cooking Oil was Sold for Processing to Animal Feed and Biofuel
| U.S. Attorney’s OfficeDecember 04, 2014 |
PROVIDENCE, RI—Andrew Jeremiah, 78, and his brother, Bruce Jeremiah, 72, of Cranston, R.I., owners and operators of Jeremiah Motors Corp., and Removal Services and Green Energy, in Central Falls, R.I., were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence today to home confinement and probation for conspiring to sell and transport used cooking oil stolen from restaurants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to a processing plant in New Hampshire for processing to animal feed and biofuel.
U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., sentenced each defendant to two years’ probation, with the first six months to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring, and a $3,000 fine. Restitution in this matter will be determined at a later date. The defendants previously forfeited $44,730 in cash and a 1984 Ford F700 truck seized from them during the investigation.
Andrew and Bruce Jeremiah pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to unlawfully transport stolen goods with a value in excess of $5,000.
The sentences are announced by United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha; Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office of the FBI; and Central Falls Police Chief James J. Mendonca.
Anthony Simone, Sr., 60, of Cranston, a co-defendant in this matter, pleaded guilty on August 21, 2013, to one count each of conspiracy to transport in interstate commerce stolen goods and transport in interstate commerce stolen goods. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., on January 8, 2015.
According to information presented to the court, between January 1, 2011, and November 9, 2012, Andrew and Bruce Jeremiah conspired to steal used vegetable cooking oil from restaurants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and to sell the product to a New Hampshire company that specializes in processing used cooking oil for use in animal feed and biofuel. During that time, Anthony Simone, Sr., was provided lists of businesses in Rhode Island and Massachusetts where quantities of used cooking oil could be found. About three times a week, between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m., Simone, using a truck registered to Jeremiah Motors, visited those businesses and others, and, without permission from the businesses, pumped the used cooking oil into a storage tank on the truck. The used cooking oil was transported to the Central Falls industrial facility operated by the Jeremiah brothers.
At the direction of the Jeremiahs, a New Hampshire company regularly sent tanker trucks to the Central Falls facility where the defendants loaded between 2,000 and 7,000 gallons of used vegetable oil per trip. More than 200,000 gallons of used cooking oil was stolen and sold to the New Hampshire processing plant.
The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Ferland.
The matter was investigated by the Central Falls Police Department and the FBI.
To assist the media and the public, a glossary of federal judicial terms and procedures is available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/justice101/
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