ATLANTA - Nine men - five of them from northeast Georgia - have been arraigned on federal fraud charges accusing them of tricking a Rome paper mill into paying $4.8 million for ``phantom loads'' of timber.
The defendants are accused of scamming the Temple-Inland paper mill from 2004 to 2006. Eight of the men were arraigned on Monday.
According to an indictment, Aaron Freeman, 49, Rome, worked as a scale house operator at the mill and learned how to manipulate the computer system to produce two weight readings when a single truck passed through the mill's scale.
One reading would be the weight of timber actually delivered and the other would be for a phantom load. Freeman then allegedly recruited truck drivers to take credit for the phantom loads and share the profits.
They were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Also indicted were Kevin Fields, 31, Forsyth, Ga.; Curtis Hart, 52, and Jason Joseph, 32, both of Macon; Roger Carthern, 63, and Andrew Carthern, 40, both of Jefferson; J. David Carthern, 64, Commerce; Robert Frank Ferguson, Jr., 56, Maysville; and, George Tate, 40, Hartwell.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
Monday
June 30th, 2025
11:29AM
