Jason Torrance, 44, of East Haddam, was sentenced in federal court to 20 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for engaging in a fraud scheme. The crime involved businesses in Cheshire and New Britain.
According to information from Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Torrance and Adam Meyers devised a scheme to defraud their employers by arranging for payment on goods that never shipped and instead diverting those payments to themselves. Torrance worked out of the New Haven branch of a New Jersey-based electrical and industrial supply company. Meyers was a project manager for a New Britain-based electrical subcontractor that frequently purchased supplies from the New Jersey firm.
Prosecutors said Meyers identified to Torrance projects on which he believed the profit margin for his firm would permit them to divert excess profits to themselves without his employer becoming aware. They used a third conspirator, Daniel Wall who operated Bob Wall and Associates, a Cheshire-based distributor of electrical and other related equipment.
The trio used a scheme of Wall invoicing Meyers’ employer. Wall, the Feds said, would then get paid, cut a check to Torrance’s company, and keep 10 percent as his commission. Meyers and Torrance would split the rest. The victim companies lost more than $600,000 as a result of this scheme.
In October, Meyers, 44, of Southbury, was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Wall, 59, of Bridgeport, was sentenced to three years of probation, the first 12 months of which he must serve in home confinement.
