MADISON, WIS. - John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Brad R. Volkmann, 57, Pewaukee, Wis., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 18 months in federal prison for wire fraud. The sentence is to be followed by two years of supervised release. Volkmann pleaded guilty to this charge on November 9, 2015.
During the period from January 2005 to January 2014, Volkmann worked as a sales representative for Spectrum Brands, Inc., a global and diversified consumer products company based in Madison, Wis., and a smaller company purchased by Spectrum Brands -- Applica Consumer Products, Inc. During that time, Volkmann devised a scheme to defraud Spectrum and Applica by embezzling funds from a fund that was supposed to be used to pay legitimate business expenses that promoted efforts to sell their products.
Volkmann also caused Spectrum Brands to over-pay the amounts of money that went into the fund by emailing inflated invoices to Spectrum Brands. Volkmann diverted monies from the fund by causing checks to be mailed to his residence. He caused the checks to be made payable to third parties, making it falsely appear as if the checks were for legitimate business expenses.
After receiving checks, Volkmann used them to pay vendors and service providers for items and services obtained for his own personal benefit, including payments for lawn services, limousine services, vacations, airline tickets, groceries, gas, and clothing.
As part of the sentence, Volkmann was ordered to pay a total of $325,000 in restitution. He paid $250,000 toward that amount prior to sentencing.
The charge against Volkmann was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution of the case has been handled by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Sinnott.