⏱ 2 min read
RELATED: Mail Heist: Duo Swiped $370K in Hamburg
SEE ALSO: Texas Courier Admits to Coast-to-Coast Coke Run
A former CEO and a consultant for Edison Nation, a publicly traded company, have confessed to falsifying records to mislead financial regulators during the height of the pandemic. Christopher Ferguson, the former chief executive, and Brian McFadden, a consultant, both pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Manhattan.
The scheme revolved around a bogus claim of over $10 million in purchase orders for personal protective equipment – PPE – like hand sanitizer and face masks. Edison Nation blasted out a press release boasting about the orders in April 2020, but the whole thing was a mirage. A key buyer had already backed out of a $9 million deal days before the announcement.
According to court papers, Ferguson and McFadden knowingly submitted the faked records to FINRA, the financial industry’s self-regulatory body, after the agency asked for proof of the reported orders. The move was a clear attempt to inflate the company’s value and maintain investor confidence, prosecutors said. The pair face sentencing at a later date.