Little Rock fraudster gets 2 years for taking kid-feeding funds

A Little Rock man who admitted in March that he set up a phony nonprofit organization called Blessed for Success so he could receive government funds to which he wasn't entitled was ordered Wednesday to spend nearly two years in federal prison.

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Reuben Nims admitted receiving $182,728.65 in "reimbursement" funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Arkansas Department of Human Services, despite never providing food or snacks for children in low-income areas as he claimed on reimbursement forms.

"He defrauded the government under the pretense of helping children in need," U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. said, explaining why he sentenced Nims, 52, to 21 months in prison -- the high end of a 15- to 21-month penalty range suggested by federal sentencing guidelines for wire-fraud conspiracy and that amount of loss.

Moody also said he was motivated by knowing that Nims initially lied to federal agents, denying that he owned a Cadillac Escalade that he drove to an interview, and telling the truth only after people at neighboring businesses were interviewed, shedding light on his activities.

Nims must make full restitution, through the courts, to the USDA, Moody said. He ordered Nims to begin paying the money back with 50 percent of funds available to him in prison and then 10 percent of his gross income once he is released. Moody ordered Nims to remain on supervised release for three years. The judge said any other defendant who is convicted of being involved in the same theft will also be liable for the full amount of the restitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jana Harris told the judge at Nims' plea hearing March 8 that Nims claimed to have provided after-school snacks and meals to up to 300 children at a time on 10 occasions between November 2013 and September 2014. As an approved sponsor for the USDA's Child and Adult Care Feeding Program, he falsely claimed that his nonprofit handed out the food from a location at Markham Street and Rodney Parham Road in Little Rock.

His sister-in-law, Gladys Waits, worked at the Department of Human Services and approved him as a sponsor. She was among the first three women to be indicted in December 2014 in a scam to defraud the program of millions of dollars. Waits, also known as Gladys Elise King, pleaded guilty in March to wire-fraud conspiracy and receipt of a bribe, and is awaiting sentencing.

Waits' estranged husband, Anthony Waits, is to be tried by a federal jury beginning March 27, along with Jacqueline Mills and Dortha Harper, all on charges of wire-fraud conspiracy.

In his plea hearing, Nims said that in return for Gladys Waits' help in the scheme, he gave about half of the money he received to Anthony Waits.

Mills of Helena-West Helena and Tonique Hatton of North Little Rock were the other two women initially indicted. Hatton, who was also a Human Services Department employee, pleaded guilty in September to wire-fraud conspiracy and receipt of a bribe. Since then, several other people have pleaded guilty in the theft of what now totals $11 million in government money meant for hungry children.

Nims is the second person to be sentenced. Kattie Jordan of Dermott was sentenced March 15 to 63 months, or just over five years, in federal prison.

Nims' attorney, Brooks Wiggins of Benton, didn't verbally request a particular sentence for him, but referred the judge to a sentencing memorandum that she filed under seal Wednesday, saying, "I stand on that." Nims declined to address the judge himself.

Metro on 11/03/2016

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