12-28-05 -- Moore, Gary -- Indictment -- News Release

Inventory Control Associate For National Retailer Indicted in Alleged Drop-Shipment Fraud

CAMDEN – A former inventory control associate at OfficeMax’s Delran Delivery Center was arrested on a federal Indictment today for his alleged scheme to cause electronic consumer goods and other merchandise to be fraudulently drop-shipped to addresses he controlled, causing a loss of approximately $185,000 to his employer, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Gary Moore, 31, of Delran, was arrested this morning at his home on a one-count Indictment that was unsealed with his arrest. The Indictment charges that Moore devised a scheme to defraud and obtain property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses which caused certain electronic consumer goods and other merchandise to be sent and delivered by a private commercial interstate carrier.

The Indictment describes a scheme in which the defendant caused merchandise to be drop-shipped to addresses he and another unindicted co-conspirator controlled. According to the Indictment, Moore’s job duties included the processing of OfficeMax customers’ telephone orders. Moore either caused the ordered merchandise to be shipped from the Delran Delivery Center or, if the merchandise was not in stock, ordered from one of OfficeMax’s wholesale suppliers. The wholesaler suppliers would then ship the merchandise directly to the customers, commonly known as a drop shipment.

The Indictment alleges that Moore used a computer linked to one of the company’s wholesale suppliers, S.P.R. Company (SPR), with warehouses in Moorestown, as well as elsewhere in the northeastern United States, to process and fill fraudulent customer orders. SPR then billed OfficeMax for the merchandise it shipped to fictitious customers as a result of Moore’s fraudulent orders.

As part of Moore’s scheme, he paid other individuals a nominal fee to accept delivery of the fraudulently ordered merchandise, according to the Indictment. Additionally, Moore also was paid fees by another OfficeMax employee, identified only as J.G. in the Indictment, to cause certain electronic goods to be shipped to addresses J.G. provided.

The Indictment alleges that in January 2001 Moore knowingly caused 10 digital cameras to be shipped by United Parcel Service to an address in Willingboro.

The charge in Count One carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the aggregate loss to the victim or gain to the defendant. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

In determining an actual sentence, the judge to whom the case is assigned would, upon a conviction, consult the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Magistrate Joel B. Rosen released the defendant on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond pending trial, which is scheduled for March 6.

Despite Indictment, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Christie credited Special Agents of the U.S. Secret Service Philadelphia Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert Slama, with the investigation leading to the Indictment.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Wiener of the Criminal Division in Camden.

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Defense Attorney: Lisa Evans, Esq. Asst. Federal Public Defender