SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A former mayor and alderman of Willard, Mo., was sentenced in federal court on Monday for a five-year-long scheme in which he used personal identity information to steal nearly $300,000 from more than 500 truck drivers who worked for his employer.
Corey Louis Hendrickson, 46, of Springfield, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to three years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Hendrickson to pay $298,737 in restitution.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, on Oct. 24, 2023, Hendrickson pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Hendrickson, who served as Willard’s mayor from 2015 to 2021 before being elected as an alderman in 2022, resigned from his position on the Willard Board of Aldermen the same day.
The release noted that Hendrickson admitted that he gained unauthorized access to the fuel expense accounts of more than 500 individuals and conducted more than 1,000 fraudulent transactions that resulted in at least $298,737 being stolen from his victims. Hendrickson’s fraud scheme lasted almost five years, from Sept. 9, 2016, to Aug. 17, 2021.
Hendrickson worked as a fleet dispatcher for Prime Incorporated, a freight transportation and logistics trucking company that is headquartered in Springfield. Prime contracted with ComData to serve as a payment processor and issuer of fleet fuel cards, and to maintain the financial accounts of Prime drivers that were used to pay for fuel costs as needed by the truck drivers. Prime put funds into each driver’s ComData account, which was then utilized for driving expenses such as fuel. ComData cards were used by the drivers like a bank card.
Hendrickson used his computer access to steal the identity information of drivers and withdraw nearly $300,000 from the accounts intended to pay for the fuel costs for drivers employed by Prime. He transferred the stolen funds into his personal bank accounts.
According to court documents, Hendrickson’s victims incurred losses that ranged between less than $100 to $6,495, with the average loss of a few hundred dollars for each Prime driver’s account.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
Typical political figure.
I’m guessing it was the cash advances he was hitting. This is why a lot of companies have stopped doing cash advances. Too much fraud from company management as well as just too easy for the driver to get behind from it. I haven’t worked for a carrier now in almost 10 years that offered it. It’s a system that is of a bygone era before everyone had debit, credit and COMDATA cards and a lot of truck stops took cash only. It likely needs to be put to rest.