Former Anchorage oilfield services manager gets 58 months for wire fraud and tax evasion

A former general manager of an Anchorage oilfield services company was sentenced Tuesday to 58 months in federal prison and ordered to repay about $2.59 million to the business. Prosecutors say that while he was taking the money, he twice cut his workers' pay, citing the company's poor finances.

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason also fined James Wohlers, 58, of Deatsville, Alabama, $200,000 and ordered about $2.59 million in restitution to GBR Equipment/Oilfield Services and $340,584 to the IRS, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska. He pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion.

Wohlers joined GBR, which provides oilfield services on the North Slope and elsewhere, in 2008 as human resources manager, at a starting salary of about $18,000 a month, according to the indictment. He became general manager around 2009, with control of payroll, accounting and the company's bank transfers.

An FBI forensic analysis found he stole at least $2.5 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the indictment says the scheme ran from at least 2013 through 2019. Prosecutors say the money went to a car, a boat, a building and personal travel to China, and that he altered payroll entries to raise his own pay.

In November 2015, he announced employee pay cuts of 5 to 10 percent to address GBR's poor financial condition, and in February 2016 he announced more cuts of 5 to 15 percent, according to the indictment.

The indictment also says he diverted money GBR had earned. In 2017, two companies GBR had worked for paid $25,000 and $2,500 on invoices from BGI Industrial Services, an Alabama partnership Wohlers formed in 2015 and alone controlled, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say he also used GBR credit cards for BGI's expenses and had GBR employees do BGI's work.

According to the indictment, GBR employees grew concerned that the company was earning enough yet could not pay vendors and workers. In 2019, an employee went through the books and found transfers that did not benefit the company. GBR fired Wohlers on Aug. 6, 2019, and sent him a letter saying he owed $1.5 million. He then deleted about 10,000 company emails, the indictment says.

The IRS calculated a tax loss of more than $340,000, tied to false returns for 2016 through 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A federal grand jury indicted Wohlers in December 2024 on one count of wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion.

"It is hard to fully quantify the true damage this defendant inflicted through his deceit," U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman said in the announcement.