Jury convicts Jupiter fuel broker who bilked military out of millions

• A federal jury convicted a Florida man on 34 felony counts for defrauding the U.S. military out of millions.
• Prosecutors said he submitted fake invoices for canceled fuel orders to Navy and Coast Guard vessels.
• The defense argued he was exploiting loopholes in government contracts, but the jury found him guilty of fraud.

A federal jury convicted a Jupiter fuel broker of submitting dozens of fake invoices to U.S. warships in a scheme that netted him more than $4.5 million and funded the purchase of multimillion-dollar properties in Florida and Colorado.

Jasen Butler, 37, said he was just exploiting poorly written government contracts. Convicted on Jan. 15 of 34 felonies, he faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and several more for forgery and money laundering.

"This defendant brazenly defrauded the U.S. military out of millions of dollars and put critical fuel resources at risk, all to fund his cushy and fictitious lifestyle," said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement the following day.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks will sentence him on April 8.

Prosecutors: Fake documents equal fraud

According to prosecutors, Butler owned the fuel-supply company Independent Marine Oil Services and deliberately sought fuel orders he expected the military to cancel.

His pattern was straightforward: Underbid contracts to win them and then submit fabricated invoices claiming massive expenses when cancellations occurred. Those expenses were never actually incurred.

Between August 2022 and January 2024, Butler made more than $4.5 million through the SEA Card Program, an online system that allows Defense Department vessels to buy fuel at seaports worldwide. In one instance, he claimed nearly $877,000 for a canceled delivery to a U.S. warship in Saudi Arabia, backing it up with forged receipts and supplier invoices.

When Navy contracting officers grew suspicious in mid-2023, Butler assumed a false identity. Calling himself "Adam Ogden," he posed as an employee of a Palm Beach County disaster cleanup company and routed payments through it.

Defense: Contract entitled him to the money

Butler's legal team argued that prosecutors fundamentally misunderstood how SEA Card contracts work. Under Federal Acquisition Regulation rules, his contracts were "firm fixed-price" agreements that entitled him to full cancellation fees regardless of actual costs, they contended.

Defense attorneys said Butler routinely included "special conditions" in his bids stipulating cancellation charges. The government accepted those terms by awarding contracts. They pointed to internal emails acknowledging "loopholes" and "vulnerabilities" in the SEA Card system, with one official calling it a "Frankenstein's monster" of a procurement program.

The defense also raised a timing issue. Rules requiring contractors to prove expenses with supplier invoices weren't added until October 2024, after Butler's conduct. The government was prosecuting him based on requirements that didn't exist at the time, they argued.

But prosecutors said contract interpretation was beside the point. Even if Butler believed he was entitled to the money, knowingly submitting falsified documents to obtain it constituted fraud.

Jurors agreed. They deliberated for two days before finding Butler guilty of all but one count of money laundering.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].