Grand jury indicts man in $29M fake-credit scheme

摘要

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted a man for allegedly netting more than $29 million by peddling fake credits for biodiesel that was never produced at a Houston facility. Philip Joseph Rivkin, 49, is charged with 68 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, Clean Air Act false statements and money laundering, according to the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. Originally of Houston, Rivkin was arrested Wednesday after being deported earlier in the day from Guatemala for fraudulently obtaining citizenship there. There, he had taken the name Felipe Poitan Arriaga. The renewable fuel standard of 2007 created the system of credit trading that allows refiners to purchase what are known as renewable identification numbers (RINs) to show compliance with yearly federal biofuel mandates.