SAN FRANCISCO – LAWFUEL – Press Release Service – United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan announced that Michael Fox, 43, of Mill Valley, was sentenced yesterday to twenty-one months in prison, and ordered to pay $246,832 in restitution for defrauding his former employer, CPP, Inc., a business consulting organization in Mountain View. This sentence is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Fox pleaded guilty on January 4, 2006 to mail fraud. According to the plea agreement, Mr. admitted that during a ten-month period in 2004 and 2005, he carried out a scheme to steal over $200,000 from his employer. According to the plea agreement and complaint filed by the FBI, Mr. Fox, who was Director of Marketing at CPP, Inc., created a fictitious company named Spotted Cow. After setting up a Spotted Cow website, the defendant opened up a business bank account, and arranged for a business address through a private mailbox service. On his home computer and personal laptop, Fox created fictitious invoices showing that Spotted Cow had performed advertising services for CPP Inc. In his managerial position at CPP, Fox authorized the invoices for payment. CPP paid over $216,000 to Fox for services that were never performed, and he used the funds for personal expenses. In addition, Fox submitted over $30,000 in fictitious claims for business expense reimbursement. The fraud came to light after an employee hired by Mr. Fox suspected wrongdoing and conducted an internal investigation. The matter was then referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Maxine M. Chesney on one count of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. In addition to the prison term, Judge Chesney also sentenced Mr. Fox to a three-year term of supervised release. Mr. Fox will start serving his sentence on September 6, 2006.
Susan Badger is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Miche Sharpe. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Further Information:
Case # CR 05 0745 MMC
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.
