A former Arkansan who now lives in Texas was ordered Thursday to spend 15 months in prison and to help repay nearly $700,000 for participating in a scheme in the Eastern District of Arkansas to defraud a federal program that feeds children in low-income areas.
Waymon Weeams, 36, pleaded guilty in October 2016 to a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy, admitting that beginning in 2014, he was involved for about a year in a scheme that prosecutors say has resulted in the theft of at least $13 million from the program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service.
A federal investigation into the fraud has ensnared nearly 20 people since late 2014 -- with two new defendants charged this month -- and is ongoing.
Weeams admitted that he obtained $697,236.41 in "reimbursement" for meals he falsely claimed to provide to children at feeding sites in Wynne, Marianna and Forrest City.
He faced 15 to 37 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, largely because of the amount of money involved. However, he was credited for coming forward soon after learning that a federal investigation was underway into the scheme, for which he said he was recruited by a friend, Anthony Leon Waits, who is serving a 14½-year sentence.
Waits' wife at the time, Gladys Elise Waits, also known as Gladys King, was an employee of the state Department of Human Services, which administered the federal program in Arkansas. She pleaded guilty to approving Weeams and others as sponsors in return for kickbacks to her and her husband. She is serving a nine-year sentence.
Between all three of his approved feeding sites, Weeams claimed that as many as 872 children were fed each day. However, prosecutors said no children were ever fed at the Forrest City site and that Weeams now contends 10 to 50 children were fed at the other two sites. He said about 40 percent of the direct-deposited reimbursement claims went to Anthony Waits.
"I don't have an excuse. I'm not blaming anyone. I did this myself," Weeams told U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on Thursday. He said he is ordinarily "a very giving person" and that publicity about the case has brought great embarrassment to him and his four children.
Defense attorney Eric Gribble asked the judge to allow Weeams to avoid prison by serving a probationary sentence with community service work.
"He's a good person, he really is. He's got a good heart," Gribble said, calling Weeams a "model client" who, despite enduring many difficulties, including being abandoned by his mother at age 11 and seeing his brother murdered in 2003, has always held down a regular job and regularly performs charity work through his church. Gribble also noted that Weeams wasn't a leader or organizer of the scheme.
While acknowledging that Weeams has been "easy to deal with," Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron McCree objected to the request for probation, citing the amount of money Weeams collected for a program designed to help hungry kids and the amount of planning involved, which included renting buildings in which he pretended to feed children.
McCree suggested a sentence at the low end of the guideline range, saying it would fit in with the various sentences handed out by different judges to the 14 people sentenced so far.
Metro on 02/16/2018