U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that MELVIN LEWIS II, age 53, of Gretna, was sentenced today after previously being convicted of thirty counts of mail fraud.
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier sentenced LEWIS to served 240 months of imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release. Additionally, restitution will be determined in a restitution hearing scheduled for Dec. 1, 2016.
According court records, during the course of and subsequent to his employment by an off-shore services company located in Harvey, LEWIS devised a scheme to defraud various employees of that company and other public servants and officials. As part of his mail fraud scheme, LEWIS caused “demand for payment" letters to be mailed to victims. When his demands were ignored, LEWIS filed fraudulent liens against personal real property of the victims and sent additional demands for payment stating that the liens would not be removed until payment was received.
U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Gregory M. Kennedy and Jonathan L. Shih were in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
