A man charged in October with running a fraudulent computer networking parts scheme pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court, authorities announced that evening.
According to Deirdre M. Daly, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Stamford resident Craig A. Stanland, 40, waived his right to indictment and pleaded before a judge to one count of mail fraud arising from a scheme in which he obtained hundreds of computer parts from Cisco Systems, Inc. through the use of multiple aliases, business entities, post office boxes, and shipping addresses.
In October 2012, Stanland began operating a service contract fraud scheme in which he purchased or controlled approximately 18 service contracts for Cisco networking parts. He then used aliases to make hundreds of false service requests to Cisco to replace purportedly defective computer networking parts, which Cisco would fulfill by mailing replacement parts to his home in Stamford, various addresses in Brooklyn, NY, and two PO boxes in Greenwich.
Stanland then sold the new parts to third parties to "enrich himself," Daly said. Although he was supposed to return the allegedly defective parts to Cisco, he either returned no parts at all or sent third-party, off-brand parts.
Through this scheme, Stanland obtained nearly 600 parts from Cisco ranging in value from approximately $500 to $8,600, totaling a loss for Cisco of $834,307.
Stanland was arrested on October 1, 2013, and been free on bond of $100,000 since then. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21, 2014. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
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