Brunswick Man Charged with Wire Fraud

An information has been filed charging Joseph A. Chandler, II, age 42, of Brunswick, Ohio, with five counts of wire fraud, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

The information charges that from August 2008 through May 2009, Chandler, the owner of Proforma FGI, headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, and a franchisee of PFG Ventures, L.P., doing business as Proforma, headquartered in Independence, Ohio, devised a scheme to defraud Proforma of approximately $380,000 by submitting fraudulent orders and fraudulent vendor invoices to Proforma through the Proforma System for payment to which he was not entitled.

To facilitate his scheme, Chandler falsely claimed to Proforma that customers of Proforma FGI ordered products and services and that vendors of Proforma FGI incurred costs in providing products and services when, in fact, they did not. Chandler also entered purchase orders into the Proforma System for which he knew no payment to Proforma would be made, according to the information.

“Corporate crime will not be tolerated,” Dettelbach said. “We are committed to prosecuting those who would seek to cut corners in the business world through fraud and deception.”

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the 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.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Justin J. Roberts and Christos N. Georgalis, following an investigation by the Cleveland office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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.