Two former House of Raeford employees have been sentenced to prison for defrauding their former employer.

United States District Judge Elizabeth Foote sentenced William Ross Hickman, of Arcadia, Louisiana, to 52 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. Hickman was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,693,221.

Brian Whiteman, of Haughton, La., was sentenced to 20 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,183,949.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana, Hickman and Whiteman participated in a scheme to defraud which began prior to 2018 when they were employed at Raeford Farms of Louisiana LLC (Raeford Farms). Hickman was the sales manager and Whiteman was assistant sales manager of Raeford Farms’ Arcadia production plant.

While employed at Raeford Farms, Hickman developed a scheme to fraudulently divert business from Raeford Farms by using Group 7792 as an intermediary to purchase chicken frames from Raeford Farms. Hickman used his position as sales manager to provide favorable sales terms to other entities to the detriment of Raeford Farms. Hickman had a pre-arranged agreement with an unnamed individual and his corporation to sell the chicken frames to Heritage Food Sales (Heritage), which was another company controlled by Hickman. Heritage paid Group 7792 a guaranteed return for each transaction but never took possession of the chicken frames or added anything of value to the transaction. Hickman would then sell the same chicken frames to a poultry wholesaler in Chattanooga, Tenn., for profit.

To further the scheme to defraud, Hickman and others acting in concert with him, sent invoices by email from Arcadia, Louisiana, through interstate commerce, for Heritage to receive payment for the chicken frames. Hickman and Whiteman conspired together to conceal the involvement of Heritage from Raeford Farms in these chicken frame transactions.

As assistant sales manager for Raeford Farms, Whiteman was responsible for tracking inventory and the details regarding all shipments. Whiteman provided this type of information to Hickman to further the conspiracy to defraud in order to get a higher price for chicken frame loads sold by Heritage. In exchange for his participation in the conspiracy to defraud, Whiteman understood and agreed with Hickman that Heritage would pay him through his own business entity, All Trade Enterprise LLC (All Trade). Hickman would pay Whiteman a monthly commission through All Trade and occasionally to him personally.

The transactions conducted during the time period of the investigation resulted in a loss of over $2 million to Raeford Farms.

Hickman and Whiteman each pleaded guilty on March 8, 2023, to conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Alexander Van Hook, special counsel to the U.S. Attorney, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tennille Gilreath.