Comar Inc. CEO charged in grant scheme
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Cross Lanes publishing executive was criminally charged today for his role in an elaborate scheme to divert federal grant money.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Cross Lanes publishing executive was criminally charged Tuesday for his alleged role in an elaborate scheme to divert federal grant money.
Albert Hendershot, CEO of Comar Inc., is accused of misappropriating part of a $100,000 workforce training grant awarded last year to Comar, which publishes MetroValley magazine, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.
The felony charge alleges that Hendershot diverted $5,000 from the grant and gave the money to a woman who provided no services for the payment.
Hendershot has been under investigation by the FBI and the Legislature's Commission on Special Investigations since March.
Federal prosecutors filed the felony charge Tuesday in a document called an information. Prosecutors often use an information when a defendant agrees to plead guilty and cooperate with authorities in exchange for leniency.
Reached on his cell phone Tuesday, Hendershot said he was busy attending a meeting and unable to comment on the federal charge. He promised to return the call, but never did.
Meanwhile, Hendershot's lawyer, Bob Martin, sent a reporter a copy of a "stipulation of facts" agreed upon by Hendershot and federal prosecutors.
In the document, Hendershot seems to shift blame for the company's misconduct to former Comar Chief Technical Officer Martin Bowling.
The signature of U.S. Attorney Thomas Ryan was missing from the copy sent to the Gazette. The "stipulation of facts" is expected to be filed during Hendershot's plea hearing.
Hendershot becomes the fourth person to face criminal charges for the misappropriation of the $100,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant distributed by the state Workforce West Virginia office, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs.
In July, Bowling pleaded guilty to charges he diverted a portion of the grant money. He's scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.
Bowling's mother, Mary Jane Bowling, a former Workforce West Virginia administrator, and Christine Gardner, a former West Virginia State University extension agent, also have been charged in the scheme.
In Tuesday's filing, federal prosecutors allege that Hendershot wanted to use the grant funds to provide a $5,000 employee "bonus" to Martin Bowling for his help in securing the grant, which his mother administered and distributed to Comar.
Bowling requested that the payment be made to his longtime girlfriend, Mandi Felty, "for the sake of appearance at Workforce West Virginia," according to the stipulation of facts. Bowling and Felty have since married.
To disguise the payment, Bowling created a false "independent contractor agreement" and submitted it to Workforce West Virginia, Hendershot told federal prosecutors.
Hendershot later signed a check to pay Felty $5,000 -- money intended to be Bowling's bonus payment.
Hendershot acknowledged that he knew Felty didn't provide any services to Comar, according to Tuesday's filing.
Felty deposited the check in a bank account she shares with Bowling.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Cross Lanes publishing executive was criminally charged Tuesday for his alleged role in an elaborate scheme to divert federal grant money.
Albert Hendershot, CEO of Comar Inc., is accused of misappropriating part of a $100,000 workforce training grant awarded last year to Comar, which publishes MetroValley magazine, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.
The felony charge alleges that Hendershot diverted $5,000 from the grant and gave the money to a woman who provided no services for the payment.
Hendershot has been under investigation by the FBI and the Legislature's Commission on Special Investigations since March.
Federal prosecutors filed the felony charge Tuesday in a document called an information. Prosecutors often use an information when a defendant agrees to plead guilty and cooperate with authorities in exchange for leniency.
Reached on his cell phone Tuesday, Hendershot said he was busy attending a meeting and unable to comment on the federal charge. He promised to return the call, but never did.
Meanwhile, Hendershot's lawyer, Bob Martin, sent a reporter a copy of a "stipulation of facts" agreed upon by Hendershot and federal prosecutors.
In the document, Hendershot seems to shift blame for the company's misconduct to former Comar Chief Technical Officer Martin Bowling.
The signature of U.S. Attorney Thomas Ryan was missing from the copy sent to the Gazette. The "stipulation of facts" is expected to be filed during Hendershot's plea hearing.
Hendershot becomes the fourth person to face criminal charges for the misappropriation of the $100,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant distributed by the state Workforce West Virginia office, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs.
In July, Bowling pleaded guilty to charges he diverted a portion of the grant money. He's scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.
Bowling's mother, Mary Jane Bowling, a former Workforce West Virginia administrator, and Christine Gardner, a former West Virginia State University extension agent, also have been charged in the scheme.
In Tuesday's filing, federal prosecutors allege that Hendershot wanted to use the grant funds to provide a $5,000 employee "bonus" to Martin Bowling for his help in securing the grant, which his mother administered and distributed to Comar.
Bowling requested that the payment be made to his longtime girlfriend, Mandi Felty, "for the sake of appearance at Workforce West Virginia," according to the stipulation of facts. Bowling and Felty have since married.
To disguise the payment, Bowling created a false "independent contractor agreement" and submitted it to Workforce West Virginia, Hendershot told federal prosecutors.
Hendershot later signed a check to pay Felty $5,000 -- money intended to be Bowling's bonus payment.
Hendershot acknowledged that he knew Felty didn't provide any services to Comar, according to Tuesday's filing.
Felty deposited the check in a bank account she shares with Bowling.
An elaborate cover-up started months later after the Gazette published a series of articles that raised questions about the grant, according to an the FBI affidavit filed last spring.
The alleged cover-up included falsified documents, forged signatures, fake invoices, pressure on others to lie about grant payments and a backdated $5,000 check Hendershot gave Felty.
Gardner allegedly told Felty that Hendershot would withhold Martin Bowling's paycheck unless Felty took part in the cover-up.
Gardner later "told Hendershot to inform Workforce West Virginia auditors that Felty had returned the $5,000 in December 2008, prior to the allegations of wrongdoing reported in the Gazette," the affidavit states.
Gardner, former director of WVSU's Economic Development Center on Charleston's West Side, also received $5,000 for 10 days of work in July 2008 as a Comar consultant on the grant, while continuing to collect her WVSU salary in full during the same period, payroll records show.
Eight months later, Gardner obtained a letter from Hendershot, who advised WVSU officials that Gardner did no consulting work for Comar during her normal Economic Development Center work hours, according to a federal search warrant. WVSU fired Gardner last month.
Federal prosecutors are expected to schedule plea hearings for Gardner and Mary Jane Bowling in the coming weeks. Gardner and Bowling share the same house in Cross Lanes.
Until Tuesday, Hendershot had repeatedly denied that he knew anything about the misappropriation of grant money when questioned by the Gazette.
In July, Workforce West Virginia directed Comar to return $10,000 in consulting fees paid to Felty and Gardner.
Hendershot responded that Gardner and Felty had submitted "falsified invoices," and he had no way of knowing they were fake at the time.
Workforce West Virginia suspended Comar's $100,000 grant in the wake of the Gazette's reports.
The state agency later withdrew a separate federal grant request that would have paid Comar and WVSU's Economic Development Center $1 million.
Comar started publishing MetroValley magazine after selling West Virginia Executive magazine to former employees last November.
During the past decade, Comar has received more than $720,000 in grants and contracts from numerous state agencies.
Hendershot has served as Comar's CEO since the company's inception in 1996.
By foregoing an indictment, Hendershot will give up his right to have his case heard by a grand jury.
U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston has been assigned to Hendershot's case in federal court.
Reach Eric Eyre at erice...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4869.
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During the past decade, Comar has received more than $720,000 in grants and contracts from numerous state agencies.This includes the period when Hendershot and COMAR controlled WV Executive. Do you really believe that Mark Lambon who has been in management with COMAR, WV Executive Magazine, and former CEO Albert Hendershot since the beginning in 1998. As Director of Business Development with COMAR/WV Executive Magazine. To plead ignorance to what transpired is being truthful? Come on, any rationale business person recognizes the magazine is tainted beyond any form reasonable repair, and will never regain creditability.