Tobacco.org

• PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF CIGARETTE COMPANY ARRAIGNED ON INDICTMENT CHARGING CONSPIRACY AND DEFRAUDING BANK IN EXCESS OF TEN MILLION DOLLARS 

United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Ned Roscoe, vice-president of Cigarettes Cheaper!, and his father John Roscoe, president of the company, were arraigned yesterday on an indictment charging them with conspiracy and five counts of bank fraud. Ned Roscoe, age 46, and John Roscoe, age 76, were also owners of the company, located in Benicia, California.

The indictment alleges that between late 2002 and November 2003, the Company was suffering financial difficulties. In an effort to continue operations, the defendants conspired to fraudulently inflate the value of the company's current inventory in order to increase the amount that the company could borrow from Comerica Bank on a revolving line of credit. The defendants misrepresented the company's inventory in weekly reports to the bank, thus causing the bank to over extend approximately $10.6 million of loans in excess of the amount the bank would have lent to the company.

Jump to full article »