Post by Sapphire Capital on Jul 21, 2008 23:13:53 GMT 4
July 21, 2008
A Simpsonville man has been indicted in what prosecutors charge was a six-year scheme to bilk more than $4 million from a water-sports equipment company with distribution centers in Easley and Piedmont.
The scam involved an employee of the company -- once known as Watermark Paddlesports and later renamed Yakima Products -- who authorities allege falsified transportation invoices to ship the company's products and shared the profit with three Upstate men.
Two of those men operated illegitimate companies to conceal the scheme, and another was also a Yakima employee, according to a federal court records.
One of the men accused in the scam, Aram Mesardjian, 58, of Simpsonville, was indicted July 8 on mail fraud and money laundering, according to an indictment filed in Greenville division federal court.
Mesardjian and two other Upstate men also are named in a civil lawsuit in Oregon federal court, along with the employee who is alleged to have falsified the invoices. That employee lived in the Upstate for a time and later moved to Missouri, according to the suit.
In an answer to the civil suit, Mesardjian denies the allegations. The two other Upstate men named in the civil suit also deny the claims against them, court records show.
Mesardjian's attorney in the civil case in Oregon, Michael Levine, said he would set up legal representation in South Carolina for Mesardjian in the criminal charges. He declined to comment on the indictment. Mesardjian could not be reached for comment.
The indictment alleges that from November 2000 until May 2002, Mesardjian created a bank account and post office box in Simpsonville for a fake transportation company, United Transportation Consultants, to launder fraudulent transactions in cooperation with an employee at Yakima who was responsible for approving freight invoices and who inflated transportation charges to the company.
The employee is characterized in the indictment as an informant and referred to only as "Mr. A."
The employee would approve falsified invoices with a third-party freight company and deposit the proceeds into the account Mesardjian created, according to the indictment.
The employee would bill Yakima from the fraudulent United Transportation account. Mesardjian would issue checks from the bank account to pay the legitimate shipper and then the two would split the profit, the indictment alleges.
The company's accounting department, based in Easley, "relied on Mr. A's integrity for the approval of all invoices for payment," according to the indictment. "If Mr. A approved the invoice, it was paid."
Fake invoices would be issued typically in amounts from $2,000 to $4,000, but in at least one case totaling as much as $30,000, the indictment alleges.
"Mr. A" and Mesardjian received a net profit of $329,000, according to the indictment. Following the pair's alleged scheme, "Mr. A" recruited others to participate, causing Yakima to ultimately be defrauded out of $4.3 million, the indictment alleges.
In June, Mesardjian requested that a judge dismiss the civil claims against him or move jurisdiction of the case from Oregon to South Carolina, citing health problems.
A Simpsonville man has been indicted in what prosecutors charge was a six-year scheme to bilk more than $4 million from a water-sports equipment company with distribution centers in Easley and Piedmont.
The scam involved an employee of the company -- once known as Watermark Paddlesports and later renamed Yakima Products -- who authorities allege falsified transportation invoices to ship the company's products and shared the profit with three Upstate men.
Two of those men operated illegitimate companies to conceal the scheme, and another was also a Yakima employee, according to a federal court records.
One of the men accused in the scam, Aram Mesardjian, 58, of Simpsonville, was indicted July 8 on mail fraud and money laundering, according to an indictment filed in Greenville division federal court.
Mesardjian and two other Upstate men also are named in a civil lawsuit in Oregon federal court, along with the employee who is alleged to have falsified the invoices. That employee lived in the Upstate for a time and later moved to Missouri, according to the suit.
In an answer to the civil suit, Mesardjian denies the allegations. The two other Upstate men named in the civil suit also deny the claims against them, court records show.
Mesardjian's attorney in the civil case in Oregon, Michael Levine, said he would set up legal representation in South Carolina for Mesardjian in the criminal charges. He declined to comment on the indictment. Mesardjian could not be reached for comment.
The indictment alleges that from November 2000 until May 2002, Mesardjian created a bank account and post office box in Simpsonville for a fake transportation company, United Transportation Consultants, to launder fraudulent transactions in cooperation with an employee at Yakima who was responsible for approving freight invoices and who inflated transportation charges to the company.
The employee is characterized in the indictment as an informant and referred to only as "Mr. A."
The employee would approve falsified invoices with a third-party freight company and deposit the proceeds into the account Mesardjian created, according to the indictment.
The employee would bill Yakima from the fraudulent United Transportation account. Mesardjian would issue checks from the bank account to pay the legitimate shipper and then the two would split the profit, the indictment alleges.
The company's accounting department, based in Easley, "relied on Mr. A's integrity for the approval of all invoices for payment," according to the indictment. "If Mr. A approved the invoice, it was paid."
Fake invoices would be issued typically in amounts from $2,000 to $4,000, but in at least one case totaling as much as $30,000, the indictment alleges.
"Mr. A" and Mesardjian received a net profit of $329,000, according to the indictment. Following the pair's alleged scheme, "Mr. A" recruited others to participate, causing Yakima to ultimately be defrauded out of $4.3 million, the indictment alleges.
In June, Mesardjian requested that a judge dismiss the civil claims against him or move jurisdiction of the case from Oregon to South Carolina, citing health problems.