BOSTON — A Houlton man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud.
Aaron Peabody, 42, of Houlton and his business partner Gary Como, 49, of Warren, Mass., pleaded guilty Jan. 14 in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass. The two are former co-owners of New England Equipment Company, a Palmer, Mass. equipment company.
U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor scheduled sentencing for April 10. Como and Peabody face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on each count of wire fraud.
According to a press release on the Federal Bureau of Investigation website, Peabody and Como were co-owners of New England Equipment Company between 2006-10. Prosecutors charge that during that time, Como and Peabody engaged in a long-running scheme that was perpetrated in a variety of ways, resulting in losses of more than $1 million.
U.S. attorney Carmen Ortiz stated Peabody’s and Como’s methods included obtaining fake loans using the names of NEECO’s customers and by selling rented or leased wood chipping equipment that they did not own and selling those machines to customers.
The two also engaged in a check-kiting scheme through a rapid series of deposits and withdrawals between two banks, giving the impression that NEECO had more money that it did. When one of the banks stopped honoring NEECO’s checks, the other bank had lost more than $138,000, Ortiz stated.
Furthermore, the men obtained money in other ways, including by taking wood chipping equipment on consignment from a NEECO client and falsely promising to pay back the customer’s loan on the equipment once the machine sold. After the machine was sold on consignment, they kept the sale proceeds and left the clients liable for the loan, Ortiz stated.
Ortiz was assisted in the investigation by Vincent B. Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI, Boston field division; and Chief Robert P. Frydryk of the Palmer Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit is prosecuting the case.
