14 DAY TRIAL // Tommy Joe Tidwell of Dayton, Ohio, pleaded guilty for orchestrating a conspiracy that netted over $1 million through the acquisition and resell of merchandise with artificially lowered prices. The man risks a sentence of maximum 40 years in prison, because he and his associates tampered with the bar codes of products in retail stores in order to buy them at significantly lower prices. The gang then sold the products on eBay in order to register profit.
Tidwell, 35, created fake Universal Product Code (UPC) labels on his home computer and then printed and distributed them to his three associates. The fraudsters then went to various big retail stores and placed the fraudulent labels on the high-end products that they targeted. By doing this they were able to buy the merchandise, such as vacuum cleaners, electric welders, power winches, personal computers and electric generators, for prices a lot under their real value.
The products were later sold by the Tidwell on eBay under the username “tjtmiss” for significant profits. In fact, he was such a successful eBay merchant that from the 513 feedback entries received in the past 12 months, only four were negative in nature, out of which one was received after he was arrested. “Never answered e-mails, never shipped item, had to complain to get money back,” said on July 2 one unhappy customer, obviously without knowing the real reason behind Tidwell's lack of response.
Tidwell was arrested on June 17, when FBI agents descended on his home and executed a search warrant. The agents seized the fraudster's personal computer as well as merchandise still labeled with the fake bar codes. The charges brought against him were conspiracy to use and use of unauthorized access devices as well as mail and wire fraud. Tidwell pleaded guilty on all counts and the sentencing was scheduled for January 23, 2009.
Another gang member, David J. Lombardo, 44, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to use and use of unauthorized access devices. Lombardo pleaded guilty back in September. The other conspirators named in Tidwell's indictment are David A. Detrick, aged 30, and Telisha Davis, aged 28, but charges against them are still pending.