Classic Corvette photo by Daniel Salcius on unsplash.com

Jeffrey Scott Hedges, 51, was sentenced Thursday to three years and 10 months in prison for committing wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme to defraud customers of his former classic car business in Clovis.

The federal Eastern District of California court in Fresno also ordered Hedges to pay $811,694 in restitution to the victims of his scheme, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between November 2015 and January 2019, Hedges carried out a scheme to defraud through his business, West Coast Chassis LLC. Hedges advertised that his business restored classic cars such as Corvettes. However, instead of providing certain customers the classic cars or car chassis they ordered, and instead of making custom modifications to the vehicle frames other customers shipped to him for repairs, Hedges kept the customers’ payments and failed to provide the promised products.

In many instances, Hedges used customers’ funds for his personal expenses and for other unauthorized purposes.

In June, Hedges pleaded guilty to 13 counts of wire fraud and 22 counts of money laundering.

This case was the product of an investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk E. Sherriff prosecuted the case.