Jackson Absconded With More Than $300,000 for Products He Never Delivered
ATLANTA, GA - GREGORY JACKSON, 44, of Glendale, Arizona, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. to federal prison for cheating the United States out of more than $300,000 for goods he never delivered under a government contract.
United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of the case, “Those who steal from the government take money from the taxpayers and contribute to the budgetary strains felt by citizens everywhere. This defendant squandered more than $300,000 he was paid under a government contract for goods he never intended to deliver. He then tried to delay the discovery of his fraud with a series of lies before leaving town with the money.”
Jackson was sentenced to 1 year, 6 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $321,997 in restitution. Jackson was convicted of these charges on June 1, 2011, after pleading guilty.
According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: Jackson, the owner and president of “Karson Distribution Company,” was awarded a United States General Services Administration (GSA) contract in 2005 to provide foam drinking cups to the federal government. In October and November 2005, the GSA placed multiple cup orders with Karson and paid almost $322,000 to the company in advance of delivery. After Jackson failed to deliver the cups within 30 days as required by the contract, he engaged in a course of conduct intended to deceive the GSA, initially by falsely claiming that his “vendor” was responsible for the failure and then by falsely claiming that he was working with a “secondary” vendor to complete the contract.
Jackson misrepresented his claimed vendor relationships, as well as the ability of his company to deliver cups. Jackson continued to deceive the GSA into a false sense of security, deflect GSA’s concerns about his failure to deliver, and ultimately impeded GSA from reporting his conduct. Jackson then stopped communicating with the GSA altogether and could not be found in Illinois, where he had lived and claimed to be doing business. Jackson was later discovered to be living in Arizona. Jackson never returned the money that the GSA paid to his company and never delivered any cups.
This case was investigated by Special Agents of the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General.
Assistant United States Attorney Stephen H. McClain prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia iswww.justice.gov/usao/gan.
