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Anthony P. Urcioli, Sr., 78, of Park Ridge, conspired with an employee of a New York company to produce bogus invoices for more drums than his Tunnel, Barrel & Drum Co, Inc. had delivered to the company's facility in Harford County, MD, U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek L. Barron said.
Urcioli, who's TBD's owner and president, split the excess funds he received with the employee -- who, in turn, gave 25% to a co-worker, Barron said.
The employee contacted Urcioli at least once a week over the course of a year to discuss the number and type of drums that he actually wanted to deliver, as well as how many to hold back, the U.S. attorney said.
Urcioli created the phony invoices, which the employee approved and sent to his company's headquarters to be paid, Barron said.
To kick back the money without anything appearing sketchy, he said, Urcioli and the two employees agreed to write checks in the names of two shell companies.
They eventually expanded the fraud to a second drum supply company that Urcioli owned, Hartford Fibre Drum, Inc., the U.S. attorney said.
Over the course of the scam, Urcioli falsely invoiced the victim company a total of $20,300,757, Barron said.
TBD and Hartford kept half that amount -- $10,150,378 -- while the remaining funds were sent to the two crooked employees, he said, adding that Urcioli also used his companies and their bank accounts to launder the money, he said.
Urcioli didn't report the ill-gotten gains on corporate tax returns for TBD and Hartford, Barron said. In doing so, he stiffed the government out of $2,539,633, he said.
Urcioli took a deal from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and filing a false tax return in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Barron commended the FBI and IRS-CI for their work in producing the plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marty Clarke and Harry M. Gruber.
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