A Georgia man admitted Monday that he was part of a rip-off scheme targeting staffing agencies across the U.S., including two in Pittsburgh.
Walter Gaillard, 43, who lives in suburban Atlanta, waived indictment by grand jury and pleaded guilty to wire fraud as part of an investigation by the FBI.
Defendants typically waive indictment as part of cooperation agreements with federal prosecutors.
Gaillard was part of a conspiracy against management agencies that provide contract and employment opportunities for job seekers.
Two of those agencies were System One and Randstad Technologies, both in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The companies entered into management contracts with employers under which the employers emailed employee time sheets for processing.
System One and Randstad would process the payroll and make payments to employees by direct deposit or by issuing a bank card. The employer then reimbursed the companies and paid a service fee.
According to court papers, a member of the conspiracy identified only as Person 1 registered a business in Georgia called DIG Enterprises and two others in Minnesota called Sophisticated Means and Consulting Resources Management. The conspirator created websites for the companies.
The firms weren’t real — just shell corporations with no buildings or employees.
Person 1 then entered into management agreements with the management agencies, including System One and Randstad, in which the agencies agreed to handle the fake companies’ payroll and employee withholding for taxes.
From 2017 through 2019, prosecutors said, Gaillard and his criminal cohorts submitted fake time sheets to the agencies, which wired money into bank accounts the fraudsters controlled.
In the case of System One, Gaillard used an alias in which he fraudulently said he had done work for DIG Enterprises. System One ended up wiring him about $33,000 in 2018. System
One also withheld about $24,000 in income tax.
Randstad ended up paying Gaillard about $14,000.
Gaillard pulled similar frauds victimizing three other management firms: Manpower Group of Milwaukee, Modis Inc. of Phoenix, and People 2.0 North America of Denver.
As part of his plea deal, Gaillard agreed that the losses to the companies totaled between $150,000 and $250,000.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan said she would sentence Gaillard in July.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
