Douglas Worman of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for defrauding a forestry management company out of more than $2.5 million in a factoring scheme.

“This case sends a clear message that, along with our law enforcement partners, we will not tolerate fraud in Idaho’s business community,” Josh Hurwit, U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho, said in a news release. Work by the Federal Bureau of Investigation led to the charges and the case, which assistant U.S. attorneys Brittney Campbell and Sean Mazorol prosecuted.

Factoring is a form of short-term financing in which a business sells its accounts receivable to a third party at a discount. The seller obtains immediate funding from the buyer, who earns a fee.

A jury convicted Worman, who owned and operated Worman Forest Management in the Coeur d’Alene area, of 17 counts of wire fraud following a trial last August.

Worman through his company in 2010 entered into a factoring agreement with J.S. Richards Forestry Management to sell Worman Forest Management accounts receivable that were based on invoices for work provided to customers.

Starting in at least 2015 and continuing through September 2018, Worman submitted “inflated and entirely false and fraudulent” invoices to J.S. Richards for factoring, according to the release, which cited court records and evidence presented at trial.

Between June and September 2018, Worman submitted more than $2 million in false and fraudulent invoices for factoring. The invoices claimed to be for actual work performed by Worman Forest Management for its customers, “but, in reality, the invoices were for amounts that were inflated and entirely fictitious,” according to the release.

Worman, 64, obtained at least $2.5 million fraudulently from J.S. Richards, according to the Idaho U.S. attorney’s office.

Idaho chief U.S. District Court judge David C. Nye also sentenced Worman to three years of supervised release and ordered that he pay restitution in an amount to be determined later.

Worman “is being held accountable for exploiting the trust of his victims,” said Albert Kelly, acting special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City FBI.