Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A federal grand jury today indicted the owner of a Quitman timber company on 65 counts of mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Jane W. Duke said.

The charges against Tracy Clemons, 44, stem from the alleged theft of timber from Deltic Timber Corp. between 2005 and 2007.

Clemons, owner of Clemons Timber Inc., faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count if convicted.

According to the indictment, Clemons had a contract to remove timber from Deltic property and haul it to a mill in the community of Ola in Yell County.

From August 2005 to February 2007, the indictment alleges, Clemons directed his log truck drivers to take some of the pine logs a Green Bay Packaging mill in Menifee in Faulkner County.

It said Clemons told his drivers to tell Green Bay the logs had been brokered through North Arkansas Wood Inc., a company owned by his mother, and that on 65 separate occasions Green Bay made payments through the U.S. mail to North Arkansas Wood totaling $417,000.

“Combating fraud is a priority for this office,” said Duke in a news release.
The El Dorado Field Office of the FBI and the Arkansas Forestry Commission conducted the investigation.