A Joplin business owner has been indicted on fraud charges related to cleanup efforts after the Joplin tornado in 2011.
Raul R. Gonzales, 47, of Neosho, was charged in a 10-count indictment returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Springfield, according to a statement from Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
The indictment alleges that Gonzales was involved in a $3 million fraud scheme in which his company received a tornado cleanup contract that was to go to a small business owned by a veteran who was disabled in military service, and at least half the workers employed under the contract were to be Jasper and Newton county residents.
Gonzales owned and operated Intelligent Investments Inc., in Joplin, which was registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs as meeting the requirement for ownership by a disabled veteran. The firm was awarded a contract in June 2011 and received payments of approximately $3 million.
According to the indictment, a company outside the state that did not meet the requirement for veteran ownership recruited Intelligent Investments to bid on the contract. The indictment alleges that Gonzales and officials of the outside firm agreed the local company would perform little, if any, work on the contract. Instead, the outside firm performed virtually all the work using its own resources and contractors, who were not local. Gonzales and officials of the outside firm agreed to split the net profits under the contract, with the outside firm receiving substantially more than half the amount.
The indictment identifies the outside firm only as “Company A.”
Gonzales is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of making a false claim, three counts of disaster fraud, and three counts of making and using a false document.
Fraud charges
Federal prosecutors have levied dozens of fraud charges in the wake of the Joplin tornado, including those in which tornado victims became victims of unscrupulous contractors and those in which residents claimed to be tornado victims to get federal aid.
Photo: The Joplin Globe
By Susan Redden sredden@joplinglobe.com
