Joplin man pleads guilty to $5.6M cooking oil scheme

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man has pleaded guilty in a scheme to sell more than $5.8 million of used cooking oil that was stolen from restaurants across five states.

The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/23YeHlt) reports that 60-year-old Jeffery Lynn Fleming, of Joplin, admitted Tuesday in federal court to transporting stolen goods across state lines, money laundering and filing a false tax return.

The fraudulent sales happened in 2010 and 2011 while Fleming was operating Fleming Recycling in Carterville. Federal prosecutors say that undercover agents repeatedly told him that the spent cooking oil he was purchasing and selling to a grease recycling business in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was stolen. Undercover agents also negotiated a deal to use one of Fleming trucks to steal spent cooking oil.

Several others have been charged in the scheme.