GREENWOOD, Ind. – Daniel Fruits, 47, of Greenwood, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering.
According to court documents, Fruits, who was hired to manage and run a Greenwood-based trucking company, defrauded his employer out of more than $14 million over a four-and-a-half-year period. From January 2015 to June 2019, a Kentucky-based entity invested over $14 million into the trucking company. Fruits used that money to fund his own lavish lifestyle including buying real estate and several vehicles, including two Ferraris and a Corvette.
Fruits hid his theft by creating false and misleading financial statements. He then sent those statements to his employer to induce additional investments into the trucking company.
The investigation also revealed that Fruits attempted to defraud Fifth Third Bank out of $432,000 by providing false documents to secure a mortgage.
