Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today that a two-count information had been filed against Brian Eden charging him with mail fraud and money laundering. In a related case, the United States Attorney�s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg also filed an information against Eden charging him with a mail fraud offense.

Eden, age 59, resides at 3810 Windmill Lake Road, Weston, Florida.

Count 1 of the information filed in Cleveland alleges that Brian Eden was the owner and president of Federal and State Corporate Advisors, Inc. (F & S), located in Hialeah, Florida, which was in the business of administering job tax credit programs for large corporations. It was further alleged that Eden�s company contracted with Jo-Ann Stores, Inc., headquarted in Hudson, Ohio, to administer its job tax credit program. The information charges that, in return for those services, Jo-Ann Stores agreed to pay Eden�s company a fee of 15% of the tax credits it earned. The information further charges that, from October 1998 through February 2000, Jo-Ann Stores paid F & S about $157,931.96. However, as the information alleges, Eden�s company falsely certified about 89% of certain job tax credits. As a result, as the information charges, Jo-Ann Stores was defrauded and overpaid F & S about 89% of its total fees or approximately $140,559.44. Finally, with respect to this charge, it is alleged that Eden caused F & S to send its invoices through the U.S. mails to Jo-Ann Stores in Hudson, Ohio, and he also caused Jo-Ann Stores to issue checks in payment of said invoices and to send them through the U.S. mails from its offices to F & S�s office in Hialeah, Florida.

Regarding Count 2 of the information filed in Cleveland, it is alleged that Eden engaged in money laundering activity by receiving five checks in excess of $10,000 from Jo-Ann Stores, totaling $115,325.44, in payment for services related to the job tax credit program, and causing them to be deposited into F & S�s business checking account. The information further alleges that, at the time Eden received these checks at F & S and caused them to be deposited, he knew they were the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, that is, mail fraud.

The information filed in Pennsylvania alleges that, as owner and president of F & S, Brian Eden developed a business relationship with two employees of Rite-Aid Corporation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The information further alleges that, from April 5, 1996, through December 6, 1999, Eden and the two Rite-Aid employees misappropriated approximately $6.4 million from Rite-Aid by causing that company to issue and mail checks through the U.S. mails to a bogus entity known as New York Sales Tax Credits. The information further charges that the defendant opened a bank account on April 5, 1996, at First Fidelity Bank in the name F & S Corporate Advisors, Inc., d.b.a. New York Sales Tax Credits, Yonkers, New York. The information further alleges that Eden opened this bank account for the sole purpose of receiving the funds misappropriated from Rite-Aid and all such checks were deposited into this account.

The actual sentence in this case, upon conviction, will be determined by the Court under the mandatory Federal Sentencing Guidelines which depend upon a number of factors unique to each case, including the defendant�s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant�s role in the offense and the unique characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and, in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

The Cleveland case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John D. Sammon, following investigation by the Cleveland office of the Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General, and the Akron office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. The Harrisburg case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler, following investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Harrisburg.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government�s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.