Company executive gets 12 months for lying about Lexington campaign contributions
A former CRM Companies executive was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison and fined $10,000 for lying and instructing others to lie about campaign contributions to Lexington city council candidates in 2018.
U.S. District Court Judge Greg Van Tatenhove sentenced Timothy Wayne Wellman, 66, of Versailles to 12 months and one day in prison after he was found guilty in February 2020 of 11 counts, including obstructing justice, aiding and abetting the obstruction of a federal grand jury, and aiding and abetting individuals in making false statements to the FBI.
During the trial, employees of CRM Companies said Wellman requested workers make donations to two city council members. Wellman would then reimburse them.
Wellman later asked the employees to give false information to the FBI, which was conducting an investigation into public corruption allegations, about reasons for the reimbursement checks. In some instances, he asked them to create false documents — including ledgers and tax forms — to support their false stories.
The donations were made to former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman Kevin Stinnett, who was running for mayor in 2018, and Vice Mayor Steve Kay. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Stinnett or Kay.
CRM Companies was one of four bidders on a new city government center for Lexington. CRM Companies’ proposal — to renovate and expand the Lexington Herald-Leader building on Midland Avenue — was picked as the winning bid, but the council ultimately voted not to move forward on a new city government center in September 2018.
Wellman will be under supervised release for three years after he leaves prison, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky Robert Duncan.
“Obstructing federal law enforcement and grand jury investigations undermines the foundation of our criminal justice system,” Duncan said. “We will continue to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of these important cases.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
