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3 charged in corporate embezzlement scheme

Federal authorities on Thursday charged three men in a fraud scheme that allegedly netted them close to $1 million.

Federal authorities on Thursday charged three men in a fraud scheme that allegedly netted them close to $1 million.

According to charging documents, the men worked for an inventory-management company in Radnor identified as "Company A," or a pharmaceutical company in New Brunswick, N.J., identified as "Company B."

While the companies were not named, "Company A" appears to be Storeroom Solutions Inc. and "Company B" appears to be Bristol-Myers Squibb, headquartered in New York, with offices in New Brunswick.

According to court documents, the pharmaceutical company hired the Radnor company to provide inventory management and purchasing services for the New Brunswick offices.

Daryl Stevens, 45, of Bethlehem, Pa., Justin Jordan, 34, of East Brunswick, N.J., and Christopher Cook, 40, of Ocean Township, N.J., are accused of creating seven fake vendor companies and causing the Radnor company to buy bogus and nonexistent products on behalf of the pharmaceutical company between July 2008 and December 2014.

A spokesman for Storeroom Solutions said in an emailed statement: "Through our own internal review processes we discovered inconsistencies and immediately conducted a prompt and thorough investigation, referred the matter to the appropriate authorities, and have been working in full cooperation with them. ... We do not tolerate actions like those charged and have zero tolerance for unethical or unlawful business conduct."

A spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb said in an email that the company "does not comment on ongoing litigation" and directed questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia.

Jordan, who was employed by the Radnor company, was the first to register one of the seven fake vendor companies and recruited his colleague, Stevens, to participate in the scheme along with  Cook, who worked at the New Brunswick company.

The Radnor company paid about $973,000 to the bank accounts of the fake vendors for products that were "bogus," court documents say.

In turn, the Radnor company "sold" the bogus products to the pharmaceutical company at a markup, totaling about $1.2 million, court documents say.

Stevens was charged by indictment with four counts of mail fraud. Jordan and Cook were each charged with nine counts of mail fraud by a process called criminal information, which indicates they are likely to plead guilty.

The three men are not in custody. Efforts to reach them or their lawyers were not successful.

shawj@phillynews.com

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@julieshawphilly