On the same day that a federal grand jury indicted him for fraud, Jeff Hicks, owner of JT Naturals and former owner of Kodiak Sports, entered a guilty plea. No sentencing date has been set, but Hicks could receive up to 20 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.
According to the indictment, United States Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services investigators determined that JT Naturals was falsifying the labeling of ingredients on vitamin supplements that were advertised as containing "wild Alaskan salmon oil," and shipping them all over the country.
The indictment and plea come approximately four months after Jasper County Circuit Court Judge Gayle Crane entered a judgment of $134,863.56 against Hicks and Kodiak Sports to conclude a lawsuit filed against the businessman by the City of Joplin.
The city took legal action after it made a $160,000 loan to Hicks and Kodiak Sports under a since discontinued program to help local businesses that would bring jobs.
After a fire destroyed Kodiak Sports and 15 other businesses June 14, 2011, the city was left hanging.
Judge Crane's decision seems to be a repeat of the city's victories in court over former master developer Wallace Bajjali. While a judge also ruled in favor of the city in its attempt to get money back from the Texas firm, it is unlikely it will ever receive a cent.
According to Jasper County Circuit Court records, Hicks was not present when Judge Crane made her ruling. A copy of the ruling was mailed to him and was returned as "undeliverable."
6 comments:
So much winning in Joplin!
Is it possible for the Turner Report to report the names of those elected and appointed officials who were involved in funding this particular scam? Facts like those won't usually be reported by the politician friendly Joplin Glob!
The September 23, 2010 issue of the Joplin Independent has an article about Hick's plans for the Community Development Block Grant, outlined in an announcement from the Chamber of Commerce; that money from the City was the $160,000 he misused. Who could resist a plan to make paint balls and fish oil capsules in the same plant?!?
KOAM-TV presented a report of this a couple of years ago.
As a former employee of this man, he is getting exactly what he deserves. Btw Anon 3:11pm, we didn't make paint balls, only dietary supplements. He started as a paintball company with Kodiak then went to JT Naturals and strictly made dietary supplements; immoral and unethical practices; kept customers, vendors and employees by giving never ending promises and excuses.
I believe Rob O'Brian was part of this. He came by the office quite often to visit with Jeff.
If the $160K was a block grant as indicated by Anon at 3:11, this had to be a community development block grant, and had to be used pretty specifically per federal law. In other words, the business had to be in a blighted area, the plan submitted by the business to secure the loan had to use low-income workers in fulfilling the terms of the grant now turned into a biz loan, etc. There are specific federal rules as to how these block grants are used when it comes to business loans, such as 70% of that loan must have been used in a project directly involving low income workers, those low income workers had to be, at minimum, earning no more than 80% of the area median wage. This is federal law. Were these strict federal rules and laws relating to block grants followed by the City of Joplin? This would be interesting to know. No municipality can just willy-nilly give out block grants as business loans. Specific rules and laws must be followed when it comes to those business loans made through the block grant.
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