OXFORD, Miss. (Feb. 6, 2012)—The Northern Mississippi federal district court has sentenced a Maryland tire distributor to 40 months in prison for defrauding one of his biggest customers.
The court also ordered Sanjeet Singh “Sonny” Veen, 47, president of Orteck Global Supply & Distribution Co. of Rockville, Md., to pay restitution of $6.89 million to Cambridge Trading in care of Dunlap & Kyle Co. Inc.
Batesville, Miss.-based Dunlap & Kyle operates 54 stores in seven states under the Gateway Tire & Service Center name. According to the original indictment against Veen filed Oct. 20, 2010, Veen emailed more than $7 million worth of fraudulent invoices to Dunlap & Kyle between March 2009 and February 2010.
The invoices contained fictitious shipping container numbers for tires that were never shipped, primarily from suppliers in China, the indictment said.
“By using deceptive invoices and causing the invoices to be mailed to D&K, Veen would cause D&K and its affiliated companies to wire transfer money to tire orders to Veen's bank account,” the indictment said.
On Aug. 19, 2011, Veen pleaded guilty to swindling D&K out of approximately $2.4 million. He also admitted to fraud at his Feb. 2 sentencing hearing.
After serving his prison sentence, Veen will undergo three years of supervised release, according to the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Oxford.