Home San Francisco Press Releases 2009 Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania Man Charged with Warranty Fraud
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Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania Man Charged with Warranty Fraud

U.S. Attorney’s Office June 25, 2009
  • Northern District of California (415) 436-7200

SAN JOSE, CA—A federal grand jury in San Jose indicted Thomas J. Kline with five counts of mail fraud, Wednesday, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, announced United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello.

According to the indictment, Kline, 66, of Mount Pleasant, Pa., was in the business of purchasing and selling used SonicWall Inc. firewall devices. For nearly four years, he fraudulently obtained computer hardware from SonicWALL.

SonicWALL, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., manufactures and sells hardware used to establish firewalls for computer networks. As part of the company’s warranty program, the owner of a SonicWALL firewall device links the serial number of his or her device with his or her SonicWALL account. When the owner of a registered SonicWALL firewall device reports a problem with the device that cannot be resolved, SonicWALL technical support personnel issue a return merchandise authorization and ship a new firewall device to the owner. The owner is then responsible for returning the defective device to SonicWALL.

According to the indictment, from January 2005 to January 2009, Kline registered hundreds of serial numbers on his SonicWALL account that were not assigned to SonicWALL firewall devices he owned. Kline then reported problems with these devices, causing SonicWALL to ship him, pursuant to the companies warranty program, hundreds of new devices from its Fremont, Calif., warehouse. After receiving these firewall devices, Kline attempted to sell them on eBay.

The maximum statutory penalty for each count of mail fraud in violation 18 U.S.C. § 1341 is 20 years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate. 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.

Hanley Chew is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Lauri Gomez. The charges are the result of investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Please note: An indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Kline must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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