FirstAlerts
Crime & Courts

William Byrd McHenry Jr. Sentenced to 20 Months for Perjury in Madison Timber Case

A Canton man was sentenced to 20 months in prison for lying under oath about assets related to a civil judgment from a multi-state Ponzi scheme.

3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 18, 2026, 1:36 p.m. ET

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 19, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET
On August 17, 2026, William Byrd McHenry, Jr., 79, of Canton, was to 20 months in prison for perjury, according to official court documents from the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. On February 25, 2026, a federal jury found McHenry guilty of making false statements under oath. According to official records, a civil suit was filed on October 1, 2018, against McHenry and others to recover funds for victims of the Lamar Adams - Madison Timber Properties multi-state Ponzi scheme, which involved more than $100 million and hundreds of victims over several years. McHenry recruited others to invest in the scheme, and a civil court judgment for $3,473,230 was entered against him on August 16, 2019, reflecting the amount owed to victims. During a judgment-debtor examination conducted under oath by a court-appointed receiver, McHenry lied about assets that could have been used to partially satisfy the civil judgment against him. Specifically, he falsely denied selling certain assets during his personal bankruptcy filed after the judgment. The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Allen. U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger of the Southern District of Mississippi announced the sentence alongside Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Eikhoff, stating, "McHenry believed he could evade justice by committing perjury to avoid accountability. Today’s sentence proves otherwise."

Earlier reports

  1. Aug 18, 2026, 1:51 p.m. ET

    William Byrd McHenry Jr. Sentenced to 20 Months in Prison for Perjury

    On August 17, 2026, William Byrd McHenry, Jr., 79, of Canton, Mississippi, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for perjury, according to official records from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. A federal jury found McHenry guilty on February 25, 2026, of making false statements under oath.

    According to court documents, a civil suit was filed on October 1, 2018, against McHenry and others to recover money for victims of the Lamar Adams - Madison Timber Properties multi-state Ponzi scheme, which involved more than one hundred million dollars and hundreds of victims. McHenry recruited investors into the scheme, leading to an August 16, 2019, court judgment against him for $3,473,230.

    When a court-appointed receiver examined McHenry under oath during a judgment-debtor examination, McHenry falsely denied selling certain assets during the pendency of his personal bankruptcy. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Allen, with U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Eikhoff announcing the sentencing.

  2. Aug 18, 2026, 1:36 p.m. ETFirst report

    Canton Man Sentenced to 20 Months for Perjury in Madison Timber Case

    On August 17, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi announced that William Byrd McHenry, Jr., 79, of Canton, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for perjury. A federal jury found McHenry guilty on February 25, 2026, of making false statements under oath. The matter remains open as a developing legal proceeding. According to official court documents, a civil suit was filed on October 1, 2018, against McHenry and others to recover money for victims of the Lamar Adams - Madison Timber Properties multi-state Ponzi scheme, which involved more than one hundred million dollars and hundreds of victims. McHenry recruited others to invest in the scheme, resulting in an August 16, 2019 civil judgment against him for $3,473,230. Court records state that a court-appointed receiver examined McHenry under oath in a judgment-debtor examination after she could not recover monies toward the judgment. McHenry falsely denied selling certain assets during his personal bankruptcy, which he had filed after the judgment was entered against him. U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger said McHenry believed he could evade justice by committing perjury, adding that making false statements under oath and attempting to obstruct justice will not be tolerated. The case was investigated by the FBI under Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Eikhoff and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Allen.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 118 Aug 2026, 17:51current

    First published.

  2. Version 118 Aug 2026, 17:36current

    First published.

  3. Version 119 Aug 2026, 22:00current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.