PRESS RELEASE
PEPPERELL MAN SENTENCED FOR $4.7 MILLION
MAIL AND WIRE FRAUD SCHEME

Boston, MA... A Pepperell man, working as a military contractor at Hanscom Air Force Base, was sentenced today in federal court to operating a scheme to defraud Cisco Systems, Inc. in California of $4.7 million worth of products.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Sharon E. Ormsby, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England, announced today that NICHOLAS STOUPIS, age 36, of Pepperell, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to 4 years and 3 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Judge Stearns also ordered STOUPIS to pay restitution in the amount of $3.1 million to the California company. On October 5, 2006, STOUPIS pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud.

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that from July 2004 through March 2006, STOUPIS was employed by a military contractor and assigned to work at Hanscom Air Force Base (“Hanscom”). At Hanscom, STOUPIS created email accounts in the names of fictitious individuals with a Hanscom email address. STOUPIS used these accounts to order replacement products for products that had been sold to the military or to military contractors, and then subsequently recalled by the manufacturer. STOUPIS directed the manufacturer, Cisco Systems, Inc., a California-based company (identified in the Information as Company A), to send these replacement products to his home address. STOUPIS then sold the products over the Internet. STOUPIS falsely told his Internet customers that he was selling the products as used military goods no longer needed by the military. In total, STOUPIS obtained products in this manner with a retail value worth in excess of $4.7 million.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth P. Berman in Sullivan’s Computer Crimes Unit.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139