Federal and International

FBI: Elk Grove Man Accused of Cheating Suburban Company


Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- An Elk Grove Village man who operated a business that claimed to be able to negotiate significant savings for corporate wireless customers was charged with defrauding one client of more than $716,000 for purportedly saving that client more than $1.7 million in wireless costs. The charge was announced today by Robert J. Shields, Jr., Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

George C. Tindall, 60, was charged in a criminal complaint filed last Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of wire fraud, a felony offense. The complaint was unsealed following Tindall’s court appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila M. Finnegan. Tindall was released pending his next court appearance, which is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19, 2013.

According to the complaint, a Northbrook, Illinois corporation entered into a contract with Tindall’s company, Carrier Cost Management Inc., pursuant to which the corporation would pay Tindall a 40 percent commission based on savings that Tindall was able to achieve for the corporation. Tindall allegedly represented to the corporation that he negotiated with representatives of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile to obtain “retention credits” to the corporation’s accounts with those wireless providers. Tindall allegedly represented to the corporation that the retention credits were given by the providers to select customers with the intent of retaining their business and compensating them for service-related problems they experienced. The complaint also alleges that Tindall forwarded purported e-mails from those representatives that set forth the terms of the retention credits. Based on invoices sent by Tindall to the corporation that set forth the alleged payment credits obtained by Tindall, the corporation paid approximately $716,534 in commissions to Tindall and Carrier Cost Management over a two-year period.

As set forth in the complaint, both Verizon and T-Mobile have no employees with the names identified by Tindall as his contacts at those companies, and while AT&T does have an employee by the name cited by Tindall, that employee stated he does not know and has never communicated with Tindall. AT&T also told agents it does not have a “retention credit” program.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Tindall faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.


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