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Former Fry Foods executive pleads guilty to wire and mail fraud and money laundering

Doug A. Wold pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other crimes recently in U.S. District Court in Boise. (Idaho Department of Correction file)

BOISE – Doug Wold, who embezzled more than $100,000 from Fry Foods while working there as an executive, pleaded guilty to wire and mail fraud and money laundering last week in U.S. District Court in Boise.

Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye scheduled Wold’s sentencing hearing for Aug. 27 at the federal courthouse in Boise.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Wold, 48, could face up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for wire and mail fraud and up to 10 years in prison for money laundering.

Wold admitted to conducting an ambitious con operation when he worked as the human resources manager for Fry Foods in 2020.

Wold, who has an extensive criminal history, ran two schemes against Fry Foods, according to federal and state court records.

Fry Foods officials are previously declined comment, but the company has sued Wold in Idaho court to recover its money.

Wold, hired by Fry Foods in June 2019, submitted false payroll requests for individuals who didn’t work, or no longer worked, at Fry Foods. Wold then intercepted those checks and deposited them into his own bank accounts.

He committed mail fraud related to a Covid testing program at the Weiser plant of Fry Foods in May 2020.

Wold arranged for Fry Foods to pay $39,995 to his own company, Hala Lallo Health, to do the testing.

According to the federal plea agreement, “in fact, Hala Lallo Health had no true role in providing the testing and another company did so for a greatly lower price.”

Wold used the diverted money to buy a speedboat and trailer for $69,116 – later seized by federal officials and forfeited by Wold.

He also “transferred proceeds of his schemes through various bank accounts that he controlled,” according to the plea agreement.

Wold also faces 19 counts of aggravated theft, identity theft and forgery in Malheur County Circuit Court, related to the same conduct.

Dave Goldthorpe, Malheur County district attorney, said last week that at least for now he plans to move ahead on Wold’s criminal case in Malheur County.

Available court records show Wold’s criminal activity began in 1991 at age 19 in the Coeur d’Alene area.

There, he was convicted of second-degree theft – a felony.

In 1993 Wold was convicted of resisting and attempting to elude police. Wold was later convicted of fraud and forgery and served more than 260 days in prison.

In the mid-1990s Wold was in Boise where he once again ran afoul of the law with convictions for forgery and grand theft and was put on probation.

Later, Wold became a licensed real estate appraiser in Idaho but in 2007 set his office on fire. Wold then faced charges of arson and insurance fraud but he negotiated a plea agreement in 2010 where he admitted to the arson but the fraud charges were dropped.

Wold was sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence but for reasons not clear in court records that was suspended.

Instead, Wold served a year in county jail and was placed on probation. He was also ordered to repay more than $130,000 to insurance companies.

He violated his probation and did about a four-month jail stint in 2011.

Early in 2012 Wold pleaded guilty to four counts of grand theft connected to a boat motor scheme he operated. He was sentenced to five years in prison on the earlier arson conviction and four years on the new boat motor thefts. He was paroled from an Idaho prison in March 2016.

News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected]

Previous coverage:

Federal indictment says Wold bought speedboat with stolen Fry Foods money

Fry Foods HR exec hired after prison stint, string of convictions. Now company wants its money back

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