MACON, Ga. — A mother and son accused of siphoning millions from their employer pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday afternoon, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
Eva Rebecca Wells, 75, worked as the office manager of Mid-Georgia Sales, a wholesale distributor of beer, wine and spirits.
A part of her role was managing the company's payroll, which gave her a powerful tool: Mid-Georgia Sales's President/CEO's signature stamp.
In her federal indictment, Eva is accused of using the company's signature stamp to cut unauthorized checks to the tune of $3.6 million from the last day of 2008 up until May 2019, court documents show.
The checks, coming from the company's general operating fund, would be made payable to either Eva or her son, 47-year-old Billy Wells, who worked in the company's IT and sales, the court documents allege.
All of the checks were "made without the knowledge and authorization of the President/CEO," the indictment read.
On Tuesday, they both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud a financial institution. They face a maximum of 30 years in prison along with five years of supervised release. They also face up to a $1 million fine.
Billy also pleaded guilty to making false tax returns, which carries a maximum of three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine.
In 2008, Eva wrote checks worth $6,325 to her son on the very last day 2008, the federal indictment showed.
Then, the next year, Eva is accused of writing just over $135,400 worth of checks for her son and over $25,000 for herself.
They would continue to do this year after year with various different figures.
In 2013, Eva had $36,000 in checks written payable to her, and Billy had almost $270,000. In 2010, the indictment says there were around $25,000 in checks written for Eva and over $135,000 for Billy.
In 2018, they wrote $566,000 worth of checks payable to Billy, which was the largest total written throughout the alleged scheme.
All told, $3.4 million in checks were made payable to Billy and just under $222,000 were made payable to Eva, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleges.
While the Wells were first arrested back in 2019, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia's indictment was filed back in February. On Tuesday, they appeared before U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal where they entered their guilty plea.
Arrest warrants in the Bibb Superior Court claim that the pair cashed more than 1,400 fraudulent checks from the company, according to previous coverage.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says a sentencing date will be set by the court. In recent court filings, the pair have sought to push back various court dates due to medical issues.