Following the initial launch of the legal case in August 2017, in which five men were accused of defrauding Xerox, another man has now pleaded guilty to the charges.
The five Florida men – David, Kyle and Jason Haynes, as well as Robert Lee Fisher and Bryan Day – were charged with 63 counts of fraud and attempted fraud and were indicted by a federal grand jury for cheating the OEM out of $25 million (€22.2 million).
In November 2018, two of the men – Kyle Haynes and Bryan Day – pleaded guilty to committing mail and wire fraud as well as filing false tax returns. They both agreed to pay the government over $20,000 (€17,571) and at the time it was revealed that they could receive prison terms of between 63 and 78 months.
David Haynes also pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme and agreed to pay approximately $17,000 (€15,278.
Now, in the latest developments from the case, Robert Lee Fisher of Daytona has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000 (€222,848).
As the Democrat & Chronicle reports, “As part of his plea before U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford, Fisher will pay the IRS $192,495 (€171,588), plus interest and penalties, for filing false tax returns between 2008-2013. He will also forfeit assets that were previously seized.”
Fisher is described as the “middle man” in the Xerox fraud scheme. His company, RBM Imaging, “was an authorised reseller of Xerox office equipment” including Xerox printers, which require toner. The five men “greatly lied about the volume of work being done, and resold the toner” they received from Xerox.
Meanwhile the Haynes brothers and Day set up their own fraudulent company, HDH Graphics, in order to “obtain roughly 63 Xerox printers from Fisher.” On receiving the toner from the OEM, they sold it to someone in Miami for $11 million (€9.8 million) and shared the profits with Fisher.
Fisher will appear in court again on 2 May 2019 for a hearing that will “determine the scope of the fraud” – this determination will have an impact on the sentence he receives.
