Former Business Partner Reacts To Sentencing of Claremore Businessman

Phil Albert's former business partner is talking about Albert's prison sentence for tax evasion. 

Albert was the president of Pelco Structural, and his former business partner says the company had to rebuild from the ground up.

Phil Albert pled guilty to tax evasion after taking millions from the company and not reporting it on his taxes.

His former business partners believe Albert should have faced additional charges.

"A person can appear one way in public life, with the charitable giving and the donations, but be very different behind the scenes," said Kasey Scott. 

Kasey Scott is the Vice President of Sales for Pelco.

He says Albert had promised Kasey and four other people that they would have ownership of the company once it was paid off, but that wasn't true.

"Which was devastating for all of us; we trusted and believed and treated the company as if we were owners for so long, and Phil lied and manipulated us," he said.

Albert was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison and was ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.

Scott says the punishment doesn't seem like enough.

"While it looks like a big number on paper, the owners will never see the full restitution in the dollars," he said.

He says while Albert did a lot of damage to the company, it's thriving today.

"Without every one of these people that are here today, this company isn't a success, and the people that aren't here today, and the people that aren't here today, they were the foundation, we stand on their shoulders," he said.

The company says because of Albert's theft, the actual total loss was more than $10 million.