Business owner sentenced in fraud scheme involving over $2.3 million.(HEADLINE: U.S. Department of Justice)

U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Michael Murray, age 61, of Street, MD, on October 6 to 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for wire fraud in connection with a scheme to establish bogus credit with 71 companies in order to receive $2,304,833.60 in products for which he did not pay, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to the plea agreement, in August 2006, Murray, owner of Chesapeake Supply, Inc. located on Shannon Drive in Baltimore, contacted a packaging company in Miami, FL to set up a credit line to distribute the Miami company's packaging products. Murray faxed a list of fraudulent credit references to the Miami company, falsely indicating that Chesapeake Supply had established a good credit line with five other companies. The fax numbers listed for those companies did not belong to the businesses listed, but were fax numbers at Chesapeake Supply, Inc. Based on this false information, the Miami company established a credit line of $50,000 for Chesapeake Supply and in September 2006, shipped $35,700 of products. The Miami company did not receive payment for their products.

In March 2007, Murray started Sinclair Enterprises, Inc., also located on Shannon Drive. For both Chesapeake Supply and Sinclair Enterprises, Murray created and faxed fraudulent documents to numerous companies falsely reflecting that his companies had established credit with other companies.

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