Hackensack Scrap Metal Brothers Allegedly Cheated Customers Out Of Millions

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Two brothers who own Cinelli Iron and Metal Co. of Hackensack are facing up to 20 years in prison for cheating customers who sold metal out of millions of dollars, authorities said.

Cinelli Iron & Metal of Hackensack.
Photo Credit: *Cinelli Iron & MEtal*

Cecilia Levine

08/02/2017 4:05 p.m.

Craig Cinelli, 47, of Allendale and his brother, Joseph Cinelli Sr., 61, of Montvale, were arrested Tuesday and charged with several counts of fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick said.

David Barteck, 53, of Wood-Ridge, the former chief financial officer of CIMCO, pleaded guilty last month before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

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UPDATE: A former scrap metal company executive from Hasbrouck Heights admitted that he cheated customers out of millions of dollars over 17 years.https://cliffsidepark.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/ex-hasbrouck-heights-scrap-metal-exec-admits-cheating-customers-of-millions/719392/

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CIMCO, which was headquartered in Secaucus, purchased scrap metal for resale and operated three scrap metal recycling facilities in New Jersey.

CIMCO trucks would deliver scrap metal containers to customer jobsites and remove them after they were filled. CIMCO then purportedly paid customers based on the type and net weight of the scrap material.

From 1999 through March of 2016, Craig Cinelli, Joseph Cinelli Sr., Barteck and others allegedly used a variety of fraudulent business practices to buy scrap metal from CIMCO’s customers for less than CIMCO should have paid, Fitzpatrick said. The company then resold the scrap metal at a profit.

Instead of paying the proper, agreed-upon amounts for the actual weight, members of the conspiracy used a variety of techniques to misrepresent the true weight and type of the scrap metal, including altering documents to reflect a lower weight, removing scrap metal from a haul before it was weighed and misrepresenting the types of scrap metal contained in a haul, according to Fitzpatrick.

During his plea hearing, Barteck admitted that the loss caused by the conspiracy that was reasonably foreseeable to him was more than $9.5 million, but less than $25 million. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 30, 2017.

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