Cedar Rapids Contractor Sentenced to 4 Years for Scamming Derecho Victims

A Cedar Rapids contractor who scammed victims of the 2020 derecho has been sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Scott Gregory Adkins, 48, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was sentenced on June 11, 2024, to 48 months’ imprisonment after a February 1, 2024, guilty plea to one count of wire fraud. The plea agreement admitted that Adkins devised and perpetrated a scheme to defraud his customers, including victims of the 2020 derecho, from December 2020 through March 2022.

Adkins was a contractor doing business as “Adkins Home Improvements LLC.” He organized the business in October 2020, approximately two months after the derecho, and offered home repair services to victims of the derecho and other individuals in the Cedar Rapids area who needed projects completed in the tight-labor, post-derecho construction market.

As part of his scheme, Adkins offered to provide construction services and materials to prospective customers, including but not limited to victims of the derecho. He provided estimates and demanded substantial advance deposits or downpayments before undertaking work on the projects. Instead of completing the projects, Adkins spent some of the advanced funds on personal expenses, including food, and transferred other such funds to a family member by means of a mobile payment service.

Adkins made false statements and excuses to his customers about the status of their projects to conceal his illicit use of the funds and to lull his customers into a false sense of security. In total, Adkins stole over $190,000 from 22 victims as part of his scheme. One of Adkins’ victims was an elderly widow who suffered roof damage to her Cedar Rapids residence from the derecho.

Adkins has a lengthy criminal history, including theft-related convictions in Iowa and Michigan. He was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Adkins was ordered to make $192,770.72 in restitution to the victims and must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Adkins is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cedar Rapids Police Department. The case file number is 23-CR-66-LTS-MAR.

The derecho, a severe storm that struck multiple counties in the Northern District of Iowa and other parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana on August 10, 2020, caused an estimated total of $7.5 billion in damage across the affected states. The derecho caused long-duration power outages across the Northern District of Iowa and the larger region, millions of acres of crops were damaged or destroyed, and numerous semi-trucks were blown off major interstate highways.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa can be followed on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.