Denver CO Sept 5 2018 A 40-year-old Aurora man who worked for Walmart has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering. He also has been ordered to pay $830,000 restitution.

Justin Manning also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to three years of supervision after completion of his incarceration, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s Colorado office.

Manning was employed as an asset protection manager and assistant store manager at a local Walmart between 2012 and 2015, according to an indictment in the case. Manning had access to blank checks in his job positions. He fraudulently filled out checks and had others fill out checks in the names of third parties to deceive Walmart employees that the checks were legitimate.

Manning used his management position to access the store’s safe and take cash from deposit bundles, the news release stated. Manning created fake loans to one of the store’s cash registers to conceal that cash was missing from the safe. Manning then placed in those cash registers fraudulent Money Network Checks totaling the same amount as the cash taken so the balance would look correct and other employees would not realize cash had been taken from the safe.

The case was investigated by the IRS.

“The role of IRS Criminal Investigation becomes even more important in embezzlement and fraud cases due to the complex financial transactions that can take time to unravel,” said Steven Osborne, special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office. “This sentence shows there are detrimental consequences for individuals who engage in financial fraud.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne prosecuted the case.

Denver Post

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