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Man Told to Repay Verizon Millions in Fraud

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By Christina Jewett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 1--A 34-year-old Folsom man was stripped of a caravan of vehicles and ordered to repay $21 million to Verizon Wireless after pleading guilty to bilking his former employers of that amount in pre-paid calling time, attorneys said.

Timothy C. Mattos, once an employee of the Verizon Wireless Orangevale office, was fired in 2003 and indicted in 2004 after stealing a half-million personal identification numbers for pre-paid air time and reselling them, court documents say.

Mattos pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of fraud, each carrying a term of up to five years in prison, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew C. Stegman.

"He admitted in court that he sold stolen PIN numbers to dealers and the public at discounted prices and obtained $6 million," Stegman said.

Mattos' attorney Christopher Wing said his client believed the PINs were sitting around unused, so he obtained the numbers and sold pre-paid calling cards.

Wing said Mattos used some of the money to buy tractor-trailers that he planned to outfit for firefighting and sell to an agency such as the California Department of Forestry. Mattos' company, Shasta Sierra Fire Protection Inc., is now defunct, Wing said.

Stegman said the Secret Service, which investigated the case, seized two tractor-trailers from Mattos, in addition to an Infiniti, Cadillac Deville, Dodge Durango, Toyota Avalon, Hummer H2, a Dodge Ram, two jet skis and Mattos' Folsom home.

A civil lawsuit against Mattos filed in federal court in New Jersey says Shasta Sierra Fire Protection Inc. was a shell company that Mattos used to launder money.

Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Heidi Flato said that after Mattos was fired, safeguards were put in place to prevent the fraud from reoccurring.

She said the theft of PINs did not affect the Verizon Wireless company or customers.

However, a complaint in the civil lawsuit by Cellco Partnership and Verizon Trademark Services LLC says the scheme caused the company "immeasurable harm."

It said people who purchased counterfeit pre-paid air time cards that the company voided "generated customer dissatisfaction that threatens to tarnish Verizon Wireless's public image."

Mattos is scheduled to be sentenced May 23, 2006, according to court records.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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