LITTLE ROCK — Quitman logger Tracy Clemons was sentenced Friday to 18 months in federal prison and was ordered to repay $228,463.80 to Deltic Timber Corp. of El Dorado in connection with his November jury conviction for stealing wood from the company.
Clemons was convicted of 65 counts of mail fraud for diverting some of the wood he cut under contract for Deltic to a competing mill that paid him for it, not knowing it was harvested from Deltic property.
The jury convicted Clemons of 116 counts of money laundering as well, but Chief U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes later threw out those convictions, saying the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support guilty verdicts for money laundering.
Clemons and his wife, Celina, own Clemons Timber Inc. He worked under contract with Deltic from August 2005 through February 2007, during which time, prosecutors said, he diverted some of the wood, which was intended to go to a mill in Ola, to a Menifee mill owned by Green Bay Packaging.
He denied the allegations, as well as allegations that he told his drivers to identify the pine sawlogs as being brokered through North Arkansas Wood, a large-volume wood brokerage company owned by his mother.
Various timber mills in Arkansas allow wood harvested by small, independent timber companies to be delivered under North Arkansas Wood’s name.
The mail-fraud charges were based on 65 payments that Green Bay Packaging mailed to North Arkansas Wood, which kept a brokerage fee before forwarding the payment to Clemons’ company.
But Holmes said the government didn’t prove the necessary “essential elements” of the related money-laundering counts to prove that checks written by Clemons Timber to Clemons himself, and deposited in Clemons’ personal account, were designed to conceal the source of the proceeds.
Clemons testified at his trial that he occasionally cut down trees from private sources, including his mother’s land and his own land, which is where he got the wood for which Green Bay paid him. He said he also helped his late stepfather, who owned a construction company, clear and haul away trees.
Defense attorney Dale Adams of Little Rock asked for leniency because Clemons’ disabled son, who is autistic and has Asperger’s syndrome, is dependent on Clemons to maintain his daily schedule. Clemons takes his son to work and is his caregiver during that time, Adams said.
Holmes heard testimony about Clemons’ obligations to his son when the sentencing hearing began March 29. Its conclusion was postponed to clarify issues concerning restitution.
Arkansas, Pages 20 on 07/22/2012