Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Jersey
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Man Charged with Mail Fraud Committed While Serving Federal Sentence for Previous Fraud
CAMDEN, N.J. – The president of a company providing goods to government agencies was charged today by a federal grand jury with allegedly attempting to defraud businesses in connection with government contracting, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Keith Fisher Sr., 62, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Burlington, New Jersey, is charged by indictment with one count of mail fraud. He was previously charged with this conduct in a criminal complaint and also with violating the conditions of his supervised release from a prior conviction. Fisher will be arraigned at a later date.
According to documents filed in this and other cases and statements made in court:
On July 18, 2017, Fisher was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb to 60 months in prison for conspiring to commit mail fraud using various companies he owned and controlled. In that case, Fisher and his companies won bids for U.S. government contracts; subcontracted with victim-businesses to provide goods to the government pursuant to the contracts; collected payments from the government for fulfilling the contracts; and then failed to pay the subcontractor victim-businesses that actually provided the goods.
The fraud scheme charged today involved another company, Atlantic Safety Corp., controlled by Fisher, and began when Fisher was nearing the end of his previous prison sentence. Fisher used Atlantic Safety to bid on federal contracts through Unison Marketplace, a reverse auction online marketplace that enabled government agencies to post requirements for goods. Upon submitting a winning bid, Atlantic Safety was awarded a contract to provide goods to a government agency.
Fisher orchestrated his fraud by using an alias to subcontract with a third-party vendor to provide goods directly to the government agency. Fisher induced the third-party vendor to ship the goods to the government agency on credit by falsely promising to pay the vendor for the goods. Fisher also made false and fraudulent representations to other potential subcontractor vendors about the credit-worthiness and financial status of Atlantic Safety.
The mail fraud count carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Northeast Field Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Timothy Westfall; special agents with the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations Mid-Atlantic Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Eric D. Radwick; and special agents with the U.S. Department of State Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Americas, Pacific, and Asia Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Smolich, with the investigation leading to today’s indictment.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.
The charge and allegations in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice press release.
