A mother and son who conspired to embezzle $3.6 million from their jobs were ordered by a Macon federal judge on Wednesday to pay the money back and serve more than three years in prison.
Eva Rebecca Wells and her son, Billy Lee Wells Jr., were indicted in early 2023 on charges of conspiring to defraud Mid-Georgia Sales, a wholesale beer and wine distributor they both worked at. They were accused of taking $3.6 million from 2008 through 2019, when they were fired. Both pleaded guilty nearly a year after their indictment and received their sentences Wednesday.
Eva Wells was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison, and her son Billy Wells Jr. will serve four years and nine months. They both will pay more than $2.5 million back to Mid-Georgia Sales each and $150,000 to the Donegal Mutual Insurance Company, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Billy Wells will also pay $586,112 to the IRS because he did not disclose the embezzled money in his tax forms. Both will have to forfeit the $3.6 million they stole from the company.
The attorney representing Eva Wells, Brian Jarrard, attempted to convince the judge to allow her to serve her sentence at home due to heart complications and old age, saying, “Sending her to prison is greater than necessary.”
Aundrea Roberts, the attorney representing Billy Wells, also asked for him to serve his sentence at home due to a genetic disorder that requires weekly hospital visits. Prison for him would be a “life-threatening consequence,” she told the judge.
But Judge C. Ashley Royal disagreed, saying home confinement wouldn’t be enough of a punishment for the crime and that the pair’s health concerns could be addressed within the prison system.
“Crimes of trust are serious crimes,” said Royal.
Eleven years of embezzling money
Eva Wells was an officer manager for Mid-Georgia Sales in December 2008 when she began writing unauthorized checks to herself and her son Billy Wells, who worked for the company in IT and sales according to court records.
She used the president of the company’s signature stamp to sign the check on his behalf and pulled the money from the company’s general operating fund rather than the account used for payroll, according to court documents.
Eva Wells often reviewed the bank statements through her email, but the bank went through a transition and the company’s president began reviewing bank statements. He then discovered that unauthorized checks totaling $3.4 million were sent to Billy Wells. Eva Wells also received $221,648 through unauthorized checks between 2008 and 2019, according to court documents.
Source Agencies
