Fraud Scheme Lands East Haddam Man in Federal Prison

East Haddam resident Jason Torrance, 44, was sentenced Thursday, Nov. 5, by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 20 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for engaging in a fraud scheme.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between approximately March 2008 and August 2012, Torrance and Adam Meyers devised a scheme to defraud their employers by arranging for payment on goods that never shipped and instead diverting those payments to themselves.

The victim companies lost more than $600,000 as a result of this scheme.

Guilty Pleas Made

On February 23, 2015, Torrance and Meyers each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. On July 15, 2015, Daniel Wall pleaded guilty to one count of misprision of a felony.

On October 30, 2015, Meyers, 44, of Southbury, was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and Wall, 59, of Bridgeport, was sentenced to three years of probation, the first 12 months of which he must serve in home confinement.

Restitution will be determined after additional court proceedings.

The Details of the Scheme

Torrance worked out of the New Haven branch of a New Jersey-based electrical and industrial supply company (“Distributor-1”), and Meyers was a project manager for a New Britain-based electrical subcontractor (“Contractor”) that frequently purchased supplies from Distributor-1.

In addition, Wall operated Bob Wall and Associates, a Cheshire-based distributor of electrical and other related equipment.

As part of the scheme, Meyers identified to Torrance projects on which he believed the profit margin for Contractor would permit them to divert excess profits to themselves without Contractor becoming aware. Meyers would submit a purchase order for materials to Torrance.

He then submitted a purchase order to Wall for the goods listed on the purchase order sent by Meyers. Wall then submitted an invoice to Distributor-1 for the materials listed on the purchase order, and Distributor-1 paid the invoice by mailing a check to Bob Wall and Associates. Distributor-1 then invoiced Contractor for the goods that were on the purchase order and Contractor issued a check to Distributor-1.

Wall then hand-delivered a business check to Torrance for approximately 90 percent of the money that had been paid by Distributor-1 to Bob Wall and Associates, and Wall retained the remaining 10 percent as his share of the proceeds from the scheme.

Torrance then paid out a portion of the proceeds of the scheme to Meyers. At no time did any product on the purchase orders actually ship to the customer, according to Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David E. Novick and William J. Nardini.

(image via shutterstock)