3rd UPDATE: Man Charged With Forging Documents In Job Search
Friday May 30th, 2008 / 23h08
(Adds details of court appearance in fourth paragraph.) By Chad Bray Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A Florida man has been charged with fraud after allegedly altering a letter by a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer to cast himself as a "whistleblower" and creating fake emails in order to alleviate concerns as he sought a chief financial officer's job this spring, authorities said Friday. Jorge Enrique Yepes, of Miramar, Fla., has been charged with three counts of wire fraud, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York on Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge. "We have reached new levels of silliness in federal court. There are terrorists, murderers and rapists running around," said David Oscar Markus, Yepes' lawyer. Apparently, federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation "are using their scare resources on people that may have lied on their resumes. There has got to be a better way to use our limited resources than this." Yepes, 41 years old, was arrested on the charges late Thursday. A federal judge in Miami ordered Yepes detained Friday pending a bail hearing there on June 4. The investigation is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the FBI. According to the criminal complaint, Yepes purportedly represented himself to be the vice president of finance for the Americas for a Fortune 500 company with $6.3 billion in sales and was seeking a job as CFO of an international company in the business of providing packaging solutions. The criminal complaint doesn't name any of the companies involved. Yepes, who had been offered the job, allegedly emailed fictitious documents and correspondence to an executive search firm in May after the search firm raised questions about his prior employment, according to the complaint. Yepes was hired as CFO of Industrial Enterprises of America Inc. in September 2007, but suspended in November pending an internal integrity review for possible violations of the company's policies and procedures, according to a press release. The company, which was delisted in April, announced his termination following the internal probe in February. A phone call to Industrial Enterprises wasn't immediately returned Friday. The complaint doesn't name Industrial Enterprises directly, but references Yepes' former employer as being a company that announced his hiring in a September 2007 press release and his termination in a February press release. The press releases were on the same days Industrial Enterprises announced his hiring and firing publicly. Yepes allegedly told the search firm that he only worked for his former employer for "one weekend in 2007 to assist with an SEC filing and that he did this work as a favor for the CFO" at his current employer, according to court papers. Yepes allegedly said he had to be listed as CFO to complete the work and had resigned from the company. Authorities claim Yepes sent emails to the search firm in May in order to ease the firm's concerns during its due-diligence process before he began work. One email was purportedly from the personal email address of the CFO of the company he claimed was his current employer, saying the CFO wasn't permitted to call the search firm directly, according to court documents. The email claimed that Yepes discovered irregularities at his former employer, which were disclosed, and he "did the right thing" and the CFO hoped Yepes' actions wouldn't affect his prospects in being hired, according to court papers. The search firm contacted the CFO directly, who denied knowing Yepes, according to court papers. The company later confirmed to the FBI agent handling the probe that Yepes was "fired for inappropriate conduct" in June 2006. Laurence Dwyer, an Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY) spokesman, said Yepes was employed by the company between September 2005 and June 2006. However, Dwyer wouldn't discuss the circumstances under which Yepes left the company, citing company policy. Yepes was employed as director of finance for Information & Brand Management, Latin America, during that period, Dwyer said. On May 6, Yepes also allegedly emailed a copy of an altered letter from an SEC lawyer that characterized Yepes as a "whistleblower" in connection with the SEC's probe of his former employer, instead of as someone the SEC was interested in speaking with, according to court papers. The original letter was sent by the SEC on April 29, while the date on the altered letter was changed to March 28, according to the criminal complaint. The next day, Yepes allegedly sent a purported email exchange between him and the SEC lawyer, in which the lawyer said Yepes "provided the staff with valuable perspective in this matter" and the SEC no longer requires his assistance, according to court documents. The SEC lawyer later denied sending the email or the April 29 letter. "Impersonating a government official is a very serious crime, and we are grateful to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI for their vigorous efforts," said John Nester, an SEC spokesman. -By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com (Judith Burns contributed to this report.)
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