United States Department of Justice

United States Attorney Scott N. Schools
Northern District of California

SAN FRANCISCO – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Ned Roscoe, vice-president of Cigarettes Cheaper!, and his father John Roscoe, president of the company, were arraigned yesterday on an indictment charging them with conspiracy and five counts of bank fraud. Ned Roscoe, age 46, and John Roscoe, age 76, were also owners of the company, located in Benicia, California.

The indictment alleges that between late 2002 and November 2003, the Company was suffering financial difficulties. In an effort to continue operations, the defendants conspired to fraudulently inflate the value of the company’s current inventory in order to increase the amount that the company could borrow from Comerica Bank on a revolving line of credit. The defendants misrepresented the company’s inventory in weekly reports to the bank, thus causing the bank to over extend approximately $10.6 million of loans in excess of the amount the bank would have lent to the company.

The maximum possible penalty for bank fraud is up to 30 years of imprisonment and a five year term of supervised release. These charges are the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Ned and John Roscoe were released on bond pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings. The case was continued for status to July 9, 2007 at 9:00am before District Judge Ronald M. Whyte in San Jose.

An indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Ned and John Roscoe must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Carlos Singh is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Tracey Andersen.

Further Information:             

Case #: CR 07- 00373 - RMW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Natalya LaBauve at (415) 436-7055 or by email at Natalya.LaBauve@usdoj.gov.