Man accused of stealing money through mail scheme | News

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A man in Columbus County has been indicted on nine different counts of mail fraud over the past two years.

According to the District Attorney's Office, John Paul Smith was indicted in Raleigh July 24. The first case dates back to May 25, 2010 with the last case reported being March 24, 2011.

Smith is a farmer and grain broker who owns and operates a grain elevator in Clarkton and Whiteville.

Murphy Brown, LLC is a pork production subsidiary of Smithfield Foods located in Warsaw and used Smith as a broker to purchase corn, soybeans and wheat from local farmers for the Murphy Brown company.

According to terms of their agreement, Smith would enter information about the quantity and type of crops he purchased for Murphy Brown via an electronic invoice.

The Department of Justice says Smith entered incorrect data into the invoices, claiming to have purchased crops from two farmers when he had not done so.

According to the DOJ, Smith also changed the address of the farmers on the invoice so that the payment checks written by Murphy Brown would be sent to him.

Smith is facing one count of mail fraud for each of the nine different times he pulled off his scheme:

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