WESTLAKE : Copier Firm Head Begins Jail Sentence

The president of a Westlake photocopier firm began serving a 30-day jail sentence Monday after he continued to market used machines as new, despite an agreement with the district attorney’s office to stop the practice.

Mark D. Klenin, president of Preferred Copy, was found in contempt of court and sentenced to jail after he failed to comply with the agreement and continued to misrepresent the condition of the used copying machines, said Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

Klenin, a 31-year-old resident of Woodland Hills, had agreed to stop the misrepresentations in an out-of-court settlement in February.

Preferred Copy offered free photocopying machines to churches, schools and nonprofit agencies. But the “free” machines came with expensive service contracts that stated the company would repair machines in 4 to 24 hours, Bradbury said.

Six customers complained to the district attorney’s office after the February agreement that the machines they were given were not new, as had been represented, and that repairmen failed to show up days after being called.

“Jail time is appropriate to punish Mark Klenin for his violations of the law and to impress on him that the court’s orders must be obeyed,” Bradbury said. “The public should be wary of the other companies, which are now engaging in the same sort of ‘donation’ scheme,” he said.