Idaho Falls man sentenced for filing false claim with U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Attorney Bart Davis reports a 56-year-old Idaho Falls man was sentenced Tuesday to one year of confinement, including six months of imprisonment and six months of home detention, for filing a false claim with the United States Department of Energy.

Michael Hendrickson pleaded guilty to the charge in November 2017.

U.S. District Judge David C. Nye also ordered Hendrickson to pay restitution of $337,000 to Paramount and ordered that Hendrickson pay a fine of $5,000 and be on supervised release for three years.

Hendrickson worked for Paramount Supply of Idaho Falls, and back in April 2009, Hendrickson created another business entity.

Both Paramount Supply and Hendrickson’s other business sold equipment to the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

In June and July 2010, while still employed with Paramount Supply, Hendrickson ordered a number of valves and transmitters from Paramount for the INL. He shipped the items to the INL and billed Battelle Energy Alliance, the contractor which operates the INL for the U.S. Department of Energy, approximately $80,000 for the items.

The bill, submitted by Hendrickson to the INL, fraudulently represented the items were being sold to the government by Hendrickson’s other business, not Paramount, and payment went to Hendrickson’s business. Actually, the items had been paid for by Paramount Supply. Because of Hendrickson’s false claim, the government paid Hendrickson’s business for the items which had been stolen from Paramount Supply.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General.