CAMDEN, N.J. – A Gloucester County, man was arrested today for allegedly mailing more than 10,000 fraudulent invoices for non-existent medical supplies to hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices throughout the United States, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Police say Mr. Robert S. Armstrong, 48, of Turnersville, is charged by complaint with three counts of mail fraud. He is scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case:
Operating under the name of Pinnacle Medical Supplies, Armstrong prepared fraudulent invoices billing hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices across the United States for medical supplies that the providers never ordered or received. The invoices included fraudulent shipping information and a fraudulent address.
Armstrong then contracted with a legitimate bulk mailing company to mail more than 10,000 invoices to medical providers. Each invoice included a payment envelope pre-addressed to Pinnacle Medical Supply at a mail box Armstrong had set up with commercial mail receiving agents.
In response to the phony invoices, at least 169 medical providers sent monies to Pinnacle Medical Supply. Armstrong deposited those checks – totaling $43,248 – from the victim medical providers into a bank account he opened in the name of Pinnacle Medical Supply.
The charge of mail fraud is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of the greater of $250,000, twice the gross profits to Armstrong or twice the gross losses to the victims of his offense.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge John Walker in Philadelphia, with the investigation leading to today’s arrest.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Carrig of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.
The charges and allegations in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.