A judgment filed Tuesday in federal court in Little Rock shows that John Calloway, former president of Wilson-Bennett Technology Inc. in Cabot, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to repay the company $774,756.14 that he admitted stealing between 2008 and 2012.
Calloway pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to wire fraud, admitting that from September 2011 through September 2012, he took advantage of his access to the company's bank accounts and payroll system to use company funds to pay off a $250,643 credit-card bill for a business owned by him and his wife called Gym Star Gymnastics. Court documents show the credit card had been used for personal and business expenses.
Court documents also show that between June 2008, when Calloway began working for the technology company, and August 2012, he wrote unauthorized checks totaling $376,274, on the Wilson-Bennett Technology bank account, to Gym Stars Gymnastics and Gym Stars Parents' Club.
From 2008 through 2012, according to the details of the charge to which he pleaded guilty, he also altered Wilson-Bennett Technology's payroll submissions to increase his salary by $143,370.85, made $155,566 in unauthorized cash withdrawals from its bank account, made $2,391 in unauthorized purchases using the company's credit card and used company funds to pay $16,949 in Gym Stars Gymnastics expenses.
His actions created a total loss to the technology company of $945,186, but some of that amount has already been repaid. U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ordered Calloway to pay the remaining amount of $774,756.14.
Marshall also ordered Calloway to participate in a gambling-addiction treatment program, stay out of casinos and refrain from betting on sports or playing any games of chance if money is involved. Calloway also was ordered to participate in mental health counseling.
Calloway's plea agreement, which he signed in agreement, states that when he was promoted to president of Wilson-Bennett Technology in 2011, he asked that he continue to handle the company's finances, which allowed him to continue concealing his thefts.
When cash-flow problems arose that year, Calloway made representations to the company about those concerns to prevent the discovery of his thefts. When the problems arose again in 2012, the agreement said, he resigned and admitted to the theft.
Metro on 07/27/2016