By Robbyn Mitchell, Times Staff Writer
Friday, December 3, 2010
TAMPA — A federal judge sentenced a former employee of a restaurant corporation to 27 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Jeremy David Schweickert, 29, of Tampa, worked for OSI, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse and several other restaurant chains, when prosecutors say he and two other men began their scheme.
Schweickert set up shell corporations and billed OSI for their services. The company paid the fake businesses more than $1.9 million through 13 wire transfers to bank accounts set up by Schweickert.
The court ordered Schweickert to pay back the $212,368 he profited from the scheme. His co-conspirators, Owen Galvin and Mark Watson, have not been sentenced.