Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that CRAIG A. STANLAND, 40, of Stamford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for fraudulently obtaining hundreds of computer networking parts from Cisco Systems Inc.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from October 2012 until he was arrested on October 1, 2013, STANLAND operated a service contract fraud scheme in which he purchased or controlled approximately 18 service contracts for Cisco networking parts. Pursuant to these service contracts, STANLAND—using the aliases “Alan Johnston” of Opex Solutions, “Kyle Booker” of KLB Networks, “Steve Jones” of SHO Networks, “Robert Johnson” of Adaptations, and “Paul Smith” of PS Solutions, among others—made hundreds of false service requests to Cisco to replace purportedly defective computer networking parts. Based on these requests, Cisco shipped replacement parts to various addresses at STANLAND’s direction, including to his home in Stamford, to his wife’s business in Brooklyn, New York, and to two post office boxes in Greenwich.

STANLAND sold the new parts to third parties to enrich himself. Although he was supposed to return the allegedly defective parts to Cisco, he either returned no parts at all or instead sent to Cisco third-party, off-brand parts.

Through this scheme, STANLAND fraudulently obtained nearly 600 parts from Cisco. The retail cost of the parts ranged from approximately $500 to $8,600, and the total loss to Cisco was approximately $834,307.

The investigation revealed that STANLAND spent some of the money he stole at various high-end restaurants in Fairfield County and New York.

STANLAND was ordered to make full restitution to Cisco.

On January 22, 2014, STANLAND waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Greenwich Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David T. Huang.