PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Vaugh Simon, 29, of Pearland, TX, was sentenced today to one year and three months in prison, and was ordered to pay a total of more than $1.9 million restitution, including more than $1.7 million to Cisco Systems Inc., by United States District Judge Joel H. Slomsky for operating a sophisticated warranty claim scheme which targeted multiple tech companies. Simon was also ordered to separately forfeit more than $178,000 in criminal proceeds that he earned through his fraud.
In June 2020, the defendant pleaded guilty to 22 counts of mail fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, two counts of filing a false tax return, and one count of tax evasion. Simon’s conviction stems from a complex scheme he perpetrated with several co-schemers in order to defraud Cisco, Sony Electronics, The Neat Company, Canon USA, APC by Schneider Electric, iRobot Corporation, and Skullcandy, Inc., out of various electronics and expensive computer hardware, by submitting to these manufacturers hundreds of false warranty claims seeking the advance replacement of more than $4 million worth of products. While not every false claim was successful, more than 200 of the claims did deceive the manufacturers, and Simon successfully induced them to ship more than $1.9 million worth of merchandise to him, most of which he sold via the internet or to computer equipment resellers.
The fraud scheme involved the registration of false...
Djibouti hosts a US naval base called Camp Lemonnier, the only American military facility of its kind in Africa. Amid a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, a clip circulating in Ethiopia sho...