Summary

On December 1, Robert B. Stalker, owner of Robert's Dismantling and Recycling Corp. (RDRC), Hudson, NH, pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Concord, NH to charges of conspiring to defraud FMCSA, the Internal Revenue Service, and the company’s insurance carriers. Stalker admitted that, between 1996 and 2000, he paid RDRC drivers in cash for overtime hours they worked, without appropriately reporting the income. FMCSA regulations require carriers to accurately record drivers' work hours. Stalker conspired to dispose of original time records and maintain false records indicating that all drivers worked only 40 hours per week. As none of the cash was reported as income, the scheme also defrauded the IRS as well as RDRC's insurance carriers, which based premiums on the firm's dramatically underreported payroll. Stalker's sentencing is scheduled for March 26, 2006. The investigation was conducted jointly with the FBI and IRS, with assistance from FMCSA.