It was a southwest Missouri case involving the theft of oil, but not the kind of oil that comes out of the ground.
The last of the men arrested in a more than $5 million cooking oil theft ring has pleaded guilty in Joplin, Missouri, admitting he stole used cooking oil from restaurants and sold it to a Tulsa, Oklahoma grease recycling business.
Jeffery Lynn Fleming, 60, pleaded guilty this week in federal court to charges of money laundering, filing a false tax return and transporting stolen goods across state lines.
Federal agents investigated the sales that happened in 2010 and 2011 while Fleming ran the Fleming Recycling Company in Carterville, Missouri. Undercover agents told Fleming the cooking oil he bought from them was stolen and still, he bought the oil. The oil was stolen from restaurants in five states.
Three others in the past several months pleaded guilty to similar charges. One of them, Brian Fleming, 49, of Mountain Grove, Missouri also agreed to forfeit $595,429 that had been seized from him as proceeds in the scheme.
Two of the men face up to 20 years in prison without parole and fines up to $500,000 or more.