[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was announced on Friday by U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder of the Department of Justice that Fairbanks man, 39-year-old David Michael McGraw was sentenced in Federal Court on “one count of misapplication from an organization receiving federal funds, and one count of making and subscribing a false return.”

The conviction and sentencing of McGraw stems from crimes committed during his employment with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council in the years 2010-2014. McGraw received a sentence of 18 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release from U.S. District Judge Ralph R Beistline.

It was then that McGraw misapplied federal grant funds from the over $3.5 million granted to the Council to address health, environmental, and safety. From those monies, McGraw misapplied approximately $315,000 and used those funds to purchase “an airplane, maintenance on the airplane, flight school for himself, the purchase of real estate, more than a dozen firearms, and online pornography,” Schroder revealed.

As McGraw carried out his embezzlement, he created two LLC corporations, Clear Skies LLC and Interior Rentals LLC, to divert funds for and to conceal the purchase of the aircraft and real estate, it was revealed in court.

Additionally, during the years from 2011 to 2013, “McGraw knowingly filed false personal income tax returns, which failed to disclose the business income he received
from his criminal activity,” Schroder said in the department’s press release.

It was investigations by the IRS, FBI, EPA, and the National Science Foundation that led to McGraw pleading guilty in October and ultimately to his sentencing Friday.

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