Boise company, employees get prison and probation for $360,000 fraud scheme
All Around Sports and three people associated with the sports poster company have been sentenced in a scheme to defraud at least one tribe and two Alaska Native entities.
The Idaho Statesman reported in January that Boise-based All Around Sports and owner Chris Hoshaw were accused of taking more than $360,000 from its victims between 2015 and 2016. They agreed to plead guilty.
At the time, prosecutors said All Around Sports had a call center on Franklin Road in Boise. Its salespeople would sell advertisements to businesses, whose ads would be printed on posters and other products. The proceeds from those sales would go to schools’ athletic programs, the All Around Sports website said.
“The company and (owner Chris) Hoshaw accept responsibility for these matters,” their Boise attorney Scott McKay said in January.
“The company has implemented changes to its business practices to ensure this does not occur again.”
The company was accused of taking money from the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and from Alaska Native organizations, the Statesman reported.
Officials at the Oglala Lakota College told the Statesman at that time that they had received threatening calls and faxes from the Boise company, demanding “absurd amounts of money.”
Hoshaw, All Around Sports get probation, fine
Hoshaw was sentenced to five years’ probation, a $100 special assessment and victim restitution, according to court records. The Argus Leader reports that Hoshaw’s sentence also includes one year of home detention.
All Around Sports, the company, was sentenced to three years’ probation, a $42,000 fine, a $400 special assessment and victim restitution, the records showed.
Their plea agreements said they would pay $109,450 to the Kokarmuit Corp. and $90,000 to the city of Ambler in Alaska.
Pelichet sentenced to prison
Calvin W. Pelichet was sentenced to two years in prison, three years’ probation, a $100 special assessment and victim restitution. Pelichet was a sales manager for All Around Sports.
Pelichet was indicted in May. Prosecutors said that between November 2015 and December 2016, Pelichet conspired to commit wire fraud through All Around Sports. They said he facilitated the transfer of more than $200,000 from accounts belonging to the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
Pelichet was accused of using “false and fraudulent” statements to employees of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Oglala Lakota College, Oglala College Center, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe; the Kokarmuit Corp. in Akiak, Alaska; and the city of Ambler in Alaska, “to obtain authorization to withdraw and obtain funds” from their accounts.
Pelichet’s plea deal said he specifically would pay restitution of $109,450 to Kokarmuit Corp.; and $90,000 to the city of Ambler.
DeBoer sentenced to probation
Kristin DeBoer was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100 special assessment. She also was sentenced to four months of home detention, according to the Argus Leader. DeBoer was charged last year with devising a scheme to fraudulently take money from the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
The charging documents didn’t say what her role was at All Around Sports. But prosecutors said she facilitated a $54,000 wire transfer in May 2016 from the tribe’s bank account to an account belonging to the company.
