Published: October 31, 2008 12:11 am      

COURTS: Falls man admits to $1.4M scam

A Niagara Falls man has pleaded guilty to running a scam that netted him more than $1.4 million dollars worth of gold ingots and coins and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of retail gift cards and electronic equipment.

Gregory S. Fisher, 46, entered his plea in federal court on Wednesday in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott to two felony charges. Fisher pleaded guilty to felony charges of mail fraud and filing a false tax return.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. As part of his plea, Fisher agreed to pay $2,149,034 in restitution.

The investigation of Fisher began with a tip to FBI agents from the Hamburg Police Department in Fall 2007. Police there told agents Fisher might have ripped off a local auto dealer.

Prosecutors said Fisher approached a sales manager with the West Herr Automotive Group and told him that two companies he owned had been pre-approved by Ford Motor Credit and DaimlerChrysler Truck Financial to purchase and "upfit" several vehicles. The upfitting requested by Fisher involved accessorizing the vehicles with sophisticated and expensive generators and various other electronic and mechanical equipment allegedly used by his companies in their business operations.

Fisher told the dealership that his Connecticut-based company would be handing the vehicle transactions. However, the FBI investigation later revealed that Fisher had established the company when he began renting a one-room, 12' x 14' office in Middlefield, Conn.

While the nameplate on the public directory in the lobby as well as the door beside Fisher's office read V.R.T.S./GREG FISHER, Fisher never even established telephone service for the office.

Between April and June 2007, Fisher purchased a total of 49 vehicles from the dealership. The upfitting costs for each vehicle ranged from approximately $18,000 to $116,000.

The financing for the work was conditioned on the customer paying a portion of the upfitting costs in advance to the dealership, with the dealer paying the balance of the charges.

Investigators said the dealer turned over $1 million to Fisher for its share of the upfitting costs. While Fisher signed contracts for delivery of the vehicles, he took delivery of only one of them.

After receiving the money from the dealer, Fisher opened a checking account at a Connecticut bank and deposited more than $1 million in checks from the dealership to that account.

Fisher then conducted a series of wire transfers in excess of a million dollars between various business accounts he controlled at different banks, including transferring more than $1,000,000 to the Coin & Stamp Gallery, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona to purchase 1,470 one-ounce gold ingots of various makes and 306 $20 dollar Liberty Double Eagle coins.

In September 2007, the FBI approached Fisher at his home in Niagara Falls and retrieved the gold that he purchased from CSGI. Fisher also provided the FBI agents with the location of the one vehicle he had purchased.

Investigators also recovered from Fisher more than $100,000 in gift cards and numerous items of electronic equipment that he had purchased with the proceeds of his scheme.

A sentencing date for Fisher has not been set.