| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 26, 2009 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
OAKLAND, Calif. – John Kevin Thompson, 45, pleaded guilty yesterday to mail fraud, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced. Thompson was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 7, 2008, for mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
According to the plea agreement, Thompson was the president of TUSK, a software recruiting service company in Pleasanton, Calif. Between January and June of 2004, Thompson promoted his company to a Newport Beach, Calif. investor and other investors as a business that had ongoing contracts with SUN Microsystems. Thompson told investors that the funds would be used for expenses such as office space, equipment, personnel, insurance and payroll. He used investor’s funds to pay TUSK’s operating costs and to cover money that he withdrew for himself from TUSK’s bank accounts which were above and beyond his agreed yearly salary. The fraudulently obtained investment funds were used with the intent to promote the fraud scheme by repaying earlier investors. Without the funds, the company would have failed or gone into bankruptcy and Thompson would have lost his only source of income.
Thompson further admitted that he made false statements alleging he had a new large contract with SUN Microsystems which never existed. He provided falsified financial documents including spreadsheets and falsified SUN Microsystems contract documents. He also notarized documents containing falsified signatures.
Thompson convinced one of the investors that his investment was at risk unless he came up with additional funds. This investor located more investors and came up with the additional funds which that investor secured with his own real property. Thompson was unable to repay the investors leaving the first investor, who secured the investments with his real property, liable to repay the other investors.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 3 before United States District Judge Claudia Wilken.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
This guilty plea is the result of an investigation by Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; and the United States Postal Inspection Service; with the assistance of the Pleasanton Police Department and Ceres Police Department.
Thomas Moore is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kathy Tat. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; the United States Postal Inspection Service; with the assistance of the Pleasanton Police Department and Ceres Police Department.
Further Information:
Case #:CR 08-00526 CW
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