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February 3, 2010

Edmond home part of federal indictment

Mark Schlachtenhaufen The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — A federal grand jury has indicted a metro area resident in an alleged $6.2 million-plus mail fraud and money laundering scheme involving computer replacement parts funneled through an Edmond home.

Mehran Koranki, 49, of Yukon, has been charged by a federal grand jury with defrauding Nortel Networks by submitting bogus warranty claims for computer parts.

Koranki is charged with five counts of engaging in a financial transaction involving more than $10,000 of criminally derived proceeds.

If convicted on the mail fraud charges, Koranki could be sentenced on each count to 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and mandatory restitution. He also would be required to forfeit the proceeds of the fraudulent scheme, which according to the indictment total more than $6.2 million.

Each of the five remaining counts could carry a sentence of 10 years in prison and would require Koranki to forfeit his business offices at 7250 Northwest Expressway as property involved in a money laundering offense.

Mack Martin, Koranki’s attorney, said he just received the indictment and had not yet reviewed it. Martin said his client plans to enter a plea of not guilty and they are planning a vigorous defense. An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trail at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.



Case background

According to the indictment, Koranki owned and controlled two Oklahoma City companies in the business of maintaining, repairing and selling computer network components.

The indictment alleges that from February 2005 to May 2006 these companies, SMC Electronics and Allied Solution Technical Center (“ASTC”), used a warranty agreement with the electronics manufacturer Nortel Networks to obtain computer parts with retail values as high as $24,995.

The warranty agreement allowed businesses with Nortel computer systems to obtain replacements for broken or defective parts, according to the indictment. It required that businesses use replacement parts in their own Nortel systems and that they not sell the parts to third parties.

Nortel canceled SMC Electronics’ agreement in April 2006.

According to the charges filed Wednesday, even though neither SMC Electronics nor ASTC had a valid Nortel system, Koranki’s companies obtained replacement parts exclusively for the purpose of selling them to third parties.

In April 2006, Koranki allegedly caused a former SMC Electronics employee to order replacement parts from Nortel under the fictitious name “Bob Tompkins” through ASTC’s professional services agreement, according to the indictment.

In order to conceal the fact that SMC Electronics would actually be receiving these replacement parts, Koranki told the former employee to request that Nortel send the parts to the employee’s home in Edmond, and then to transport the parts to SMC Electronics’ offices in Oklahoma City.

The indictment lists 48 separate Federal Express shipments of Nortel parts to Koranki’s businesses as a result of the fraudulent warranty claims.

The charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the Postal Inspection Service and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott E. Williams.



marks@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 102

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