Summary

Charges and guilty pleas were unsealed in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, TX, against four companies and two men who previously pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the states of New Mexico and Texas of an estimated $13 million in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes. Bruce Norman Nicholson, Bryan Lynn Nicholson, J & R Mercantile, Ltd., Rogers Oil Co., Allstar Trading, and Sunwest C-Stores Corp., pleaded guilty on September 11 to wire and mail fraud for their role in buying, selling, transporting and distributing the fuel while misrepresenting to the respective states and to various refineries that the fuel was being sold to other states or to the Navajo Nation in order to receive a tax exemption. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. OIG conducted this investigation with the FBI and the Texas State Comptroller's Office.