Posted on 09/17/2005 1:14:07 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man who bilked companies out of tens of millions of dollars in equipment by pretending he was recruiting business for a secret NATO project was sentenced to 80 months in prison.
Errol Anthony Marsden, listed in court papers as Jourdan Mars, had pleaded guilty in March to a count of wire fraud in a plea agreement with prosecutors. He said at his sentencing Friday that his actions were unacceptable.
"At the time, I was not a rational person," the British national said. "For the first time in my life, I see the consequences,"
One of his attorneys, Bruce Kelton, said he expects that Marsden will be deported to Britain after he serves the sentence.
Marsden was also sentenced Friday in an unrelated case involving check fraud, which he had pleaded guilty to but fled the country in 1993 before sentencing, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors said Marsden obtained $20 million to $40 million worth of cameras and other audiovisual gear from Sony, Pioneer and other companies by posing as an Air Force officer working for NATO's Allied Rapid Action Command.
In 1996 he contacted the Virginia office of Electronic Data Systems and claimed he was procuring for a multi-billion-dollar equipment deal. The company was told it couldn't contact anyone else in the military because the project was top-secret.
As part of the bid process, suppliers - many of whom were brought in by Electronic Data Systems - were told to provide samples of equipment that would be "tested to destruction" and therefore could not be returned, according to a government affidavit.
A Sony private investigator finally tracked Marsden to an apartment in Belgium, where a 1999 search found some of the equipment. Marsden was caught two years later as he tried to cross from Holland into Germany with a fake passport, authorities said.
His wire fraud case was originally filed in Virginia but transferred to Los Angeles because that is where the previous check fraud case was tried.
Gee, you think?
and the money? Ever wonder why money is hardly ever recovered and no mention on how they will extract the cost from him?
I would say that after he serves his time for the crime, he spendws the rest of his life as a slave -- ooos can't say that --- indentured servant ---- trying to pay America for what he has stolen. Let's see at minimum wage .. how many millions of dollars was that?
Gosh. Only nine years to convict. Must be some sort of record.
Ah yes, the " Doomsday Machine".
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