An Athens, Tn., man who built a software firm with $60 million in annual sales was sentenced Monday to serve 57 months in federal prison.
Leslie Scott Webb appeared before Judge Sandy Mattice.
He had asked to be allowed to start a faith-based, 12-step recovery program. He said he had a plan to raise $2.5 million for a center advising others not to get involved in illegal drugs.
Webb said he served 10 years in the Air Force and later had top security clearance while working for Lockheed Martin and Hughes Aircraft. He then helped launch the Insurance Shopping Network, which he said was sold in 2012 after four years of a meteoric rise.
He said he got into trouble when he returned to his hometown after his mother became ill.
"I made the mistake of my life," he said after being offered a taste of ICE meth. "Life as I knew it changed in a moment of time."
He said another man involved in meth, Matthew York, moved in with him in Athens. York was given a 10-year sentence.
Webb said he started taking meth every day. He said it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and his family home.
"I lost it all because of this stupid stuff," he said.
Prosecutor Gregg Sullivan said Webb did have a prior arrest involving drugs and a gun.
Attorney Dan Ripper said as far as convictions went, the worst he had was a traffic ticket.