Marion County man sentenced for wire fraud

Topics:  Express Towing

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of West Virginia
5 July 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA – Devin Wright, 25, of Fairmont, West Virginia, was sentenced to eight months in prison for participating in a wire fraud conspiracy, United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II, announced.

Wright conspired with another individual at Express Towing, a towing company in Wetzel County, where they would rent trucks from national rental companies and then would stage false accidents involving the rented trucks. Instead of calling the national rental companies and arranging for their preferred and approved towing companies to tow the damaged vehicles, they allegedly towed the trucks or had the customers return the trucks to Express Towing and then would demand payment of towing fees before they would return the truck to the rental companies. He pled guilty in May 2016 to one count of “Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert H. McWilliams prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated.

Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp, Jr. presided.