Raleigh, N.C. — A former office supplies dealer was sentenced Wednesday to 51 months in federal prison for using bogus copier leases to scam area businesses and nonprofits.Scott Arthur Waddell, 51, of 8012 Llewellyn Court in Raleigh, pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud.
Waddell ran two companies, Modern Office Solutions and PST Consultants, and sold copy machines and other office supplies to businesses for years.
Investigators said he created a web of forged documents, including copier leases and credit applications, to scam area businesses and nonprofits from November 2003 to October 2008.
The fraud operated as a Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said, with Waddell using money from new leases to make payments on older ones, so victims didn't immediately know anything was wrong.
In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge James Dever III ordered him to pay more than $1.7 million in restitution.