Man guilty in $298,000 gas fraud case

Couple bilked government by using gas cards designed for fleet of cars at Fort Monroe

Peter Dujardin

Daily Press

7:40 PM EDT, June 6, 2011

NEWPORT NEWS — A Hampton man was found guilty Monday of bilking the government out of $298,000 by fraudulently using gas cards designed for a fleet of government-owned vehicles at Fort Monroe.

After deliberating for about three hours, the jury found Lanaire E. White, 38, guilty of all 16 charges he faced: conspiracy to commit wire fraud; nine counts of wire fraud; theft of government property; unauthorized access to a device; and felon in possession of a firearm.

Surveillance video shot in June 2010 showed White using cards to gas up several people's vehicles at a Hampton gas station. Witnesses said they'd pay a cut rate for the gas — $1.50 a gallon in cash — with White pocketing the money. Prosecutors said the scheme went on for more than two years.

Eight people — just a fraction of the actual number, prosecutors say — said they bought gas from White, often at a gas station on Hardy Cash Drive. One trucker testified he bought 80 tanks of diesel fuel at the cut rate. Another man said he bought about 50 tank loads for his Hummer.

Another key witness: White's ex-wife. Colleen Newton-White, 36, once the gatekeeper for 68 base vehicles at Fort Monroe, was originally charged in the scheme along with White. But she pleaded guilty on May 4, saying she took the cards from the base. She testified last week against her ex.

The three-day trial at U.S. District Court in Newport News was not without some theater, with White saying he's a member of the Moorish National Republic, a separatist group claiming not to be bound by U.S. law.

White had previously planned to represent himself, before a judge ruled he wasn't up to the task. White also refused to wear street clothes at the trial, preferring to appear in his bright orange jail jump suit. Then, he refused to acknowledge that he was even a "person," instead calling himself a "sovereign." U.S. District Judge Mark Davis referred to White as "Sovereign" on a few occasions in court last week.

On Monday, White told Davis he wanted to address the jury to tell them "who he was."

"Who are you?" Davis asked, telling him that it was already determined that he was Lanaire White. White cut Davis off, asking him if he ever took an oath. Davis replied that White is to answer the judge's questions, not the other way around.

"You are the public servant," White responded.

Davis, saying that judge determines the law and the jury is the fact finder, again asked White if he would stick to factual elements of the case if he took the stand. "If you're not going to tell me, then you're not going to testify," Davis told him.

White still wouldn't give a straight answer, saying both the law and the facts were in the jury's purview, so Davis denied him the right to address the jury. Later, as the jury left the courtroom for deliberations, White held up a file and demanded to address them, but Davis had the federal marshals restrain him.

Each of the 68 vehicles in Fort Monroe's motor pool had a credit card, to be used for gas and repairs. Newton-White testified that she would secretly remove the cards from the base, returning them in time for the next workday.

The users of the gas card were required to enter the vehicle's correct mileage into the gas pump. Another monitoring mechanism was to compare the gas going into a tank with the tank's capacity. Newton-White would attach post-it notes so White would know what to enter at the pump.

The scheme went on for two years, before the anomalies caught up with the couple. White will be sentenced on Sept. 27.

On Monday, a man named Chuck Stewart testified that White — whom he met through a mechanic friend — filled up Stewart's hummer for $1.50 per gallon about 50 times.

The first day, Stewart said, he asked White if what he was doing was "legit." "He said it was legit, that everything is fine."

Then, Stewart said, he saw a line of people waiting to get gas from White, and thought it must be legitimate "because there's so many other people involved."

Over the course of the next year, Stewart said, he would call and text message White to meet him at gas stations, most often one on Hardy Cash Drive.