ST. LOUIS – A Missouri man who has been accused of stealing more than $250,000 from a grocery chain was arrested last week, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Missouri.
Richard Lind, 39, of Florissant, was indicted with five counts of wire fraud on April 22. He appeared in court on May 20 and pleaded not guilty.
The indictment says Lind worked as the site manager for a logistics company at the grocer’s distribution center. Lind’s employer supplied the physical labor and heavy equipment to unload trailers containing the grocer’s inventory, as well as software for tracking shipments.
Lind is accused of defrauding the grocery chain by creating false records for inventory shipments that had never occurred and false invoices seeking payment from the trucking companies for unloading those shipments, the indictment says.
The trucking companies then sought reimbursement from the grocery chain. Lind allegedly voided the false records to conceal his scheme from his employer, and allegedly used the electronic payment authorization codes that resulted from his scheme to obtain cash payments at truck stops, triggering more than 600 fraudulent payments totaling more than $250,000, the indictment says.
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
