Bowling Green residents Dean Knight and Jason Uhles were sentenced Monday for their roles in an oil scheme that took thousands of dollars from investors.

Knight was the owner of Universal Developments International, which received more than $320,000 for investments in oil well projects. During the five months the company operated, it spent only $21,000 on its two projects, yielding no results, according to testimony from Uhles and FBI Special Agent Richard Glenn during Monday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green.

Knight received a 30-month sentence and three years of supervised release. He also is to pay $315,139 in restitution. He pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud.

Uhles, who sold securities and trained other salesmen for the company, received a sentence of 12 months and a day and will receive two months credit on his sentence for working with federal prosecutors. He will pay $78,839 in restitution, and upon release will have three years of supervised release.

Uhles entered a plea agreement on two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Judge Thomas Russell rejected the argument by Knight’s attorney, Joseph Kirwan, that damages should be limited to the amount Knight was indicted for and pleaded guilty to. This would have resulted in a shorter sentence.

&#8220I think the total losses are very important in this manner,” Russell said.

Scott Thomas Wendelsdorf, who represented Uhles, argued for a sentence of five months in prison followed by five months of home incarceration, but was denied.

&#8220I believe Uhles may have done the same thing with other companies,” Russell said.

Uhles said during sentencing he had worked for several other local companies that sell oil project securities, including Robo Exploration Inc., Allied Energy Group and Sunclear Energy.

The whole nature of the operation was fraudulent, said U.S. Attorney James Lesousky. Funds were solicited from investors for well projects, then spent on Knight’s girlfriend and other expenses not related to the business.

Uhles testified during the hearing that the wells looked the same after four months of raising funds for drilling as they did when they were first taken to the site by Knight when he was recruiting employees.

&#8220On the Casey well, we told people it was producing 125 barrels a day and the Lewis project was producing five to 10 barrels a day, but had the potential to produce 125 to 200 barrels a day,” Uhles said.

Knight knew his employees were lying to potential investors when selling the wells, Uhles said.

&#8220He was in the room while I was talking to them,” he said.

Glenn said when he began investigating the case, experts referred to both sites as losing investments and projects. The exact locations of the wells weren’t given, but one is in Warren County near Richardsville.

&#8220The entire business was a fraud,” Uhles said.

All that was done to develop the projects was electricity to the site and some posts for a fence, Glenn said.

The Lewis well looked worse than the Casey site, he said.

The Lewis well was drilled in 2000 originally, but was capped and was no longer a viable project, Glenn said.

He said a local oil expert laughed at estimates of 125 barrels a day. Locally, a typical successful oil well may produce one to one-half barrel a day.

Ledgers from Universal Development financial records showed that Knight used investor money to purchase a car, pay rent and open a business for Renee Patterson, who was his girlfriend at the time.