Man Pleads Guilty in Telemarketing Scheme
A Canoga Park man has pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded businesses by bribing their purchasing agents to buy stationery supplies at exorbitant markups, U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird said Friday.
Baird said Brian Alan Hale, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection with an illegal scheme to sell the supplies through a Sherman Oaks-based telemarketing business, National Industries of America.
According to prosecutors, Hale and other NIA salesmen gave cash and gifts to purchasing agents in order to get them to accept NIA products at high prices.
The company typically charged a 16% handling fee and 5% insurance fee, although the surcharges were routinely dropped if buyers complained.
Baird said Hale charged a Hollywood company, Glen Glenn Sound Co., more than $41,000 for stationery products whose wholesale value was less than $5,000.
Hale is the third person to plead guilty in the NIA telemarketing scheme.
He faces five years in prison, $250,000 in fines and restitution payments when he is sentenced June 21.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
