Former Stadium Grill Manager Sentenced to Prison

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Published on October 3 2017 10:56 am
Last Updated on October 3 2017 10:56 am
Written by Greg Sapp

The former manager of the Stadium Grill restaurant in Mattoon was sentenced Monday for embezzling from the restaurant.

40-year-old James Michael Hill of Charleston received a two-year sentence in federal prison. Hill was also ordered to pay $168,723 in restitution to the restaurant. Hill will be on three years' supervised release once he's out of prison.

Hill entered guilty pleas to four counts of wire fraud. Evidence indicated that as general manager of the restaurant, Hill could access the restaurant's accounting system to correct errors made by other employees in entering purchases. From 2007 until his fraud was discovered and he was fired in 2013, Hill made false representations in the accounting system that certain cash sales had not occurred or occurred for a lesser amount, and then took and used the cash for his own benefit. Hill also falsely represented that certain sales were incorrectly entered the system as purchases made with cash and fraudulently entered them as purchases made with gift cards. He then took and used the cash generated by those sales for his own benefit.

The US Attorney's Office for Central Illinois, the FBI and Mattoon police investigated the case.