Former Fruit of the Loom Exec Receives His Fate

It seems that Stan "Pampy" Barre's act of money laundering, mail fraud and obstruction of justice has been taken on the road like a well known script from a bad play. Fruit of the Loom has its own bandit in treachery. According to a news report, a former Fruit of the Loom executive and two other south-central Kentucky residents have been sentenced in a scheme to defraud Kentucky-based Fruit of the Loom, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Kalen Wade Watkins, 45, of Alvaton, a former executive with the company, was sentenced to 10 years and one month for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber's office said in a statement.

Laura Leigh Wells, 33, of Bowling Green, was sentenced to one year and one day, and Tyrone Nathaniel Tackett, 36, of Bowling Green, was sentenced to one year and three months for conspiring to defraud the underwear manufacturer.

Watkins previously pleaded guilty to a scheme in which, as Fruit of the Loom's environmental director, he hired companies owned by several co-conspirators to perform services for the company and approved inflated invoices from the companies, according to Huber's office.

Wells, of Environmental Technology Associates, and Tackett, of Cyclone Inc., paid Watkins hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell also ordered the three to pay restitution totaling nearly $1.7 million and were given three years of supervised released when their sentences end.

Let's hope Mr. Barre gets a similar sentence as Mr. Watkins.