Bergen Man Sentenced In Multi-Million Dollar Biofuel Scheme

MONTVALE, NJ - A Bergen County man was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $56 million in restitution Thursday for fraudulently selling biodiesel incentives to taxpayers in an elaborate scheme, said John C. Cruden, an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Indian Judge Sarah Evans Baker sentenced Joseph Furando, 50, of Montvale, after he struck a plea agreement with authorities regarding his role in the scheme. The $56 million is the amount Furando and his co-conspirators imposed on victims and taxpayers, Cruden said. He must also serve three years of supervised release.

From 2007 through 2012, Indiana-based E‑biofuels owned a biodiesel manufacturing plant in Middletown, Ind. Biodiesel is made from renewable resources, including soybean oil and waste grease from restaurants, that can be used in diesel engines.

Furando admitted that in late 2009, he and his New Jesrey companies, Caravan Trading LLC and CIMA Green, began supplying E-biofuels with biodiesel that other companies made and had already been used to claim tax credits. Tax credits on the sale of such fuel may only be claimed once. Furando purchased the fuel at much lower prices, sometimes for more than two dollars less per gallon than other biodiesel fuel, authorities said. Furando would supply E-biofuels and his co-conspirators would claim that E-biofuels made the fuel and then they would illegally re-certify the fuel and sell it at a higher market price, a fraud process Furando called “alchemy,” Cruden said.

Furando and his companies would earn as much as $15,000 per truckload of biofuel sold this way. More than 35 million gallons of fuel was allegedly sold, for more than $55 million in profits, authorities said.

Furando’s companies must pay the $56 million in restitution and fines. The third company, E-biofules, which Furando’s co-defendants Craig Ducey, Chad Ducey, and Chris Ducey, operated was also sentenced to pay the $56 million in restitution. The company is in bankruptcy and its assets are being distributed to creditors and victims.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Furando must forfeit what he purchased with the profits from the scheme, including: A Ferrari and other cars, a million-dollar home, artwork, a piano, and two biodiesel-powered motorcycles.

“Joseph Furando used fraud to spin biodiesel programs into a million-dollar home, high-end cars, expensive jewelry and watches and any other luxury that pleased him,” said U.S. Attorney Minkler. “He did so through threats, bullying, and intimidation. With the court’s sentence, all of that unraveled. The agencies and prosecutors who unraveled his schemes have shown how foolish it is to try to prey on these programs.”

All other defendants in the case have plead guilty and are awaiting sentencing.