Mr. Schiff: Normally, when a company wants to buy some products, a purchase order is prepared and the items ordered. In the 1990s in the Philadelphia area, there was a $12 million fraud case involving kickbacks and high prices for industrial goods...

Ms. Williams: "They were letting them know that if they allow them to send an invoice at an inflated price, and if they approved it, that they would send to their home a gift certificate or some type of money order which they could cash in for their personal use."

Mr. Schiff: That's Jerri Williams, an FBI Special Agent in Philadelphia. She says routine industrial items were involved in these illegal transactions...

Ms. Williams: "Penetrating oil, silicon spray, trash bags, florescent lighting tubes and duct tape."

Mr. Schiff: Williams says the FBI worked closely with the United States Postal Inspection Service and the IRS after a large industrial supply company called to report the fraud...

Ms. Williams: "Their customers began to complain."

Mr. Schiff: Arrests were made and it was prison time for subjects convicted of money laundering, conspiracy and mail fraud. I'm Neal Schiff and that's the FBI's Closed Case of the Week."

Link: Gotcha Archives