John Quinn Imprisoned For Internet Sales Of Tools Stolen From Ge Aviation

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that John Quinn, 55, of Rutland, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington to five months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to a charge of mail fraud.  U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III also ordered Quinn to serve two years of supervised release.  As a condition of supervised release, the court directed that Quinn serve an additional 5-month period of home confinement upon his release from prison.  The court ordered Quinn to pay $200,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service.  The court permitted Quinn to report to the Bureau of Prisons on June 10 to begin serving his sentence.  Immediately after sentencing, Quinn paid $108,000 into the court registry toward his restitution obligation.    

According to the information to which he pled guilty, Quinn had been employed for a number of years as a subcontractor for GE Aviation in Rutland.  The GE facility manufactures components for jet engines on military and commercial aircraft.  Quinn served as an account manager and was involved in the ordering, stocking and delivering of tools and other materials.  According to the information, Quinn began stealing tools from GE Aviation's inventory no later than 2009 and resold the stolen tools over the Internet.  Most of the stolen hardware consisted of high-speed carbide drill bits.  Purchasers paid for the stolen tools by depositing funds into Quinn's personal PayPal account.  According to PayPal records, between 2009 and July 2013, Quinn realized more than $108,000 from sales of carbide drill bits.  The cost to GE of the stolen tools was at least $200,000.

GE Aviation came to suspect that Quinn might be stealing company property last spring and conducted a sting operation where security personnel made three undercover purchases from Quinn.  Quinn typically used the U.S. mails to send the stolen tools to the purchasers. 

This case was investigated by the Rutland office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Quinn is represented by Barry Griffith.  The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.