Nov 20, 2014 1 min read

The former general manager for Consol’s land records department pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to stealing more than $440,000 in gas royalties from the company in a lease fraud scheme.

Scott D. Hamilton, 37, of Marshall Township, Allegheny County, pleaded guilty to mail fraud before U.S. District Judge David Cercone in Pittsburgh.

Hamilton was living in Houston and Washington when he set up a fictitious company, PRH LLC, in August 2009 and assigned it Consol’s natural gas subsidiary, CNX Gas, on two parcels, one in Christian County, Ill., and another in Fayette County, W.Va. The companies handling the royalties for the two parcels mailed the checks to Hamilton’s fake company instead of CNX from 2009 through 2012, according to court document. He stole $440,216 during the scheme and was originally charged with 60 counts of mail fraud, investigators said.

Cercone will sentence Hamilton on March 25. He faces up to 40 years in a federal prison and a $500,000 fine.