U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Booth Goodwin announced that David Runyon, 45, was also fined $15,000 for his role in the kickback scheme.
He had plead guilty to extortion and tax evasion last year, admitting that, as general manager of the Mountain Laurel mining complex, he had participated in and benefitted from several schemes where he and other Arch Coal employees were paid cash kickbacks from complicit Mountain Laurel vendors in exchange for the vendors’ continued business at Mountain Laurel.
The cash kickbacks totaled more than $1.8 million between 2006 and 2013.
They included five kickback schemes, including one for rebuilds where he received monies from companies rebuilding mine equipment at the operation that included Tri-State Mine Service, Carter Sales and Service, and Apex Mining Construction and Repair.
In a miner/bolter repair kickback scheme, Runyon and others received kickbacks from the owner of Mining Repair Specialist; MRS performed rebuild and repair work on Mountain Lauren’s mining equipment. His construction work scheme involved Quality Oil/Southern Construction of Logan and a kickback circle for contract labor involved the owner and operator of MAC Mine Service. All five were told that their businesses with the mine would cease if the kickbacks stopped.
Runyon, one of 10 who have plead guilty to various roles in the circle, was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1 million to Arch Coal and $325,485 to the Internal Revenue Service.
His charge stems from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the West Virginia State Police.
