Mail Fraud

Acquitted yesterday of mail fraud, prominent criminal lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr. offered advice for the federal authorities that prosecuted him. "Go after criminals," Peruto, 36, deadpanned to a crowd of reporters in the lobby of the U.S. courthouse before walking outside into the cold, a free man. Peruto, whose name has popped up in a number of headline-grabbing cases in the dozen years he's been a lawyer, was charged with cheating the...

A 59-year-old Cherry Hill accountant was indicted yesterday on charges of mail fraud for allegedly cheating his clients out of $655,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark. Howard A. Dudnick, of the 100 block of En Provence Court, was charged with 12 counts of mail fraud involving a scheme to raise money for a bogus school bond. If convicted, Dudnick could face five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Peter Suarez said.

Roofers Union-tarred Common Pleas Judge Joseph P. Braig has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he cheated an insurance company out of more than $7,000 to help pay for renovations to his girlfriend's Queen Village house, a source said. In return for the plea to mail fraud, the government agreed to drop charges that the judge extorted $500 from then-Roofers chief Stephen Traitz Jr. in 1985. The state Supreme Court last month cleared Braig of ethical wrongdoing in taking the cash, saying it was a Christmas gift from now-convicted briber Traitz.

A Montgomery County securities dealer was charged yesterday with defrauding 21 of his clients out of about $750,000 by depositing their investment money into his personal bank accounts. Harry N. Daylor, 70, of Laurelwood Road, Pottstown, was charged by the U.S. attorney's office with five counts of mail fraud in the alleged scheme. If convicted, he will face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $503,000 fine. According to the charges, Daylor, a sales representative for the national securities firm IDS Financial Services, solicited thousands of dollars from individuals from June 1978 through April 1985 for investment in a tax-exempt bond fund, and then kept the money without informing IDS of the transactions.

In a decision that will make it tougher to convict corrupt public officials, the Supreme Court yesterday invalidated a legal doctrine that has been used for years to imprison scores of governors, judges, city councilmen, congressmen and others for fraud. The justices, departing from the lower courts' uniformly broad interpretations of the federal mail fraud statute, ruled 7-2 that the law cannot be used to prosecute defendants for defrauding citizens of their "intangible rights" to honest and impartial government.

IN 1989, Michael Yaron begged a federal judge in Philadelphia for another chance, one more opportunity to use his Oxford education and business prowess for good. It wasn't the first time Yaron, a Philadelphia developer, philanthropist and political donor, had asked the court for mercy and it might not be his last. On Feb. 2, Yaron, 67, and three other individuals were convicted of wire and mail fraud in Manhattan stemming from an eight-year conspiracy involving kickbacks in excess of $2 million, the FBI said in a recent news release.

When state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide in January one day before he was to have been sentenced on mail fraud and other charges, he may have deprived himself of the very vindication he had been seeking: a chance to clear his name. "Frankly, only mistakes of the law can be appealed, not mistakes of a jury," a shaken Dwyer told reporters shortly before pulling a .357 magnum revolver from an envelope and shooting himself in the mouth. "And that is the sad fact and my attorney has said that I stand little chance of winning an appeal.

The 19-count federal indictment against Camden Mayor Milton Milan charges the city's first Hispanic mayor with bribery, attempted extortion, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. The indictment, which was unsealed yesterday in Camden, accuses Milan of two primary illegal acts: using his office repeatedly to receive payments or favors from individuals and firms, and taking bribes from Philadelphia-based La Cosa Nostra. Here are some highlights of the indictment: Accepting more than $30,000 in bribes from the Philadelphia mob under the orders of former mob boss - turned "King Rat" - Ralph Natale.

A lawyer who formerly worked at the Philadelphia Housing Authority was charged yesterday with income-tax evasion and stealing a $15,000 lawsuit settlement from a private client. Marlene Joseph, 52, of the 1200 block of Norwalk Road in Philadelphia, was charged with one count of mail fraud and two counts of tax evasion for 1987 and 1988. The charges identified Joseph as the minority-business-enterprise and equal-employment-opportunity officer at the housing authority, but Assistant U.S. Attorneys Barry Gross and William B. Carr Jr. said the charges were not based on her activities as a PHA employee.

FEDERAL PROSECUTORS Thursday filed new charges against a Philadelphia man they say schemed to smuggle counterfeit Viagra and Cialis pills into the country. According to an indictment, Randy Hucks, 50, whose street address was unavailable, illegally imported 10,188 fake Viagra tablets and 3,040 fake Cialis tablets from factories in China between November 2010 and March 2011. Hucks was initially indicted last June on charges of trafficking the fake Viagra. The new charges added smuggling and mail fraud for the fake Viagra, and smuggling, trafficking and mail fraud for the fake Cialis.

A 48-year-old Montgomery County man was sentenced Friday to 60 months in prison on embezzlement and tax charges after pleading guilty in federal court last September. Jeffrey Abramowitz, of Plymouth Meeting, was a partner in a Philadelphia law firm from 2004 until last year when he defrauded clients, including family members, his law partner and Korean emigrants who did not speak English. Abramowitz's bilked his victims out of $2.1 million, according to a sentencing document.

A Montgomery County man was found guilty of mail fraud and related charges Thursday for conspiring to burn down an auto-repair shop he owned in Philadelphia to collect the insurance money. Michael Giamo, 30, of Huntingdon Valley, was found guilty during a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. Sentencing is set for June 20 before Judge Michael M. Baylson. Giamo is accused of arranging with an employee to burn down One Source Motors, Giamo's business at 14001 Bustleton Ave., using gasoline stored in cans there.

IN 1989, Michael Yaron begged a federal judge in Philadelphia for another chance, one more opportunity to use his Oxford education and business prowess for good. It wasn't the first time Yaron, a Philadelphia developer, philanthropist and political donor, had asked the court for mercy and it might not be his last. On Feb. 2, Yaron, 67, and three other individuals were convicted of wire and mail fraud in Manhattan stemming from an eight-year conspiracy involving kickbacks in excess of $2 million, the FBI said in a recent news release.

A former City Council staffer, a businessman, and a lawyer had their convictions in a 2009 Philadelphia corruption trial vacated Wednesday by a federal appeals court. Now, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger will have to decide whether to retry the men or resolve the case through a plea bargain. The defendants, including Christopher G. Wright, 47, who was chief of staff to former City Councilman Jack Kelly, were convicted in U.S. District Court of honest-services fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy.

A Bucks County doctor has been sentenced to 34 months in federal prison for operating a $5 million diet drug "pill mill" in Northeast Philadelphia. Christopher Vassalluzzo, 47, of New Hope, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, structuring, aggravated structuring, conspiracy to commit tax evasion, and tax evasion. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Vassalluzzo ran a "pill mill" from his office in the Holme Circle section, netting more than $5 million by illegally distributing prescriptions for controlled substance diet drugs.

Robert Stinson, Jr. told investors he was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who oversaw four real estate hedge funds and promised clients annual returns of 10 to 16 percent. In reality, he was a running a Ponzi scheme that bilked 262 investors of more than $17 million. Stinson, 56, of Berywn, pleaded guilty in federal district court this morning to wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns and related offenses. The government's plea memo said Stinson and two others started a company called Life's Good Inc. in September 2006 which purported to be a real estate fund that invested in "business-to-business, high-yield, short-term secured mortgages.

A 65-year-old Philadelphia businessman admitted in court Friday that he defrauded the city out of more than $1.2 million. Barry Jones, principal owner of a Haddonfield-based information-technology firm, Mara Management Services Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court to mail fraud. Jones hired subcontractors for much of the work the city paid him to do, prosecutors say, but he overstated the number of hours that the subcontractors worked, pocketing the extra payments. In all, the city paid Jones $5.9 million between 2004 and 2008 for contracts with its Revenue and Water Departments, along with Community Behavioral Health, a city-related nonprofit that gives mental health and substance abuse advice to Philadelphia Medicaid recipients.

A 65-year-old Philadelphia businessman admitted in court this morning that he defrauded the city out of more than $1.2 million. Barry Jones, principal owner of a Haddonfield-based information-technology firm, Mara Management Services Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court to mail fraud. Jones hired subcontractors for much of the work the city paid him to do, prosecutors say, but he overstated the number of hours that the subcontractors worked, pocketing the extra payments.

An Alabama man pleaded guilty in federal district court today in connection with a massive loan-fraud scheme that resulted in losses of $53 million to Equipment Finance LLC, a lender in Lancaster County. Authorities said Equipment was a logging industry lender based in Lititz that provided funding for the purchase of forestry and land-clearing equipment. Federal prosecutors alleged that John Wiley Spann, 50, of Andalusia, Alabama, who was a logging equipment dealer, participated in the loan-fraud scheme in numerous ways.