(Source: USAO, NJ) TRENTON, N.J. –A part owner of Bayway Lumber, a Linden, New Jersey, company that sold commercial and industrial products to numerous public and private entities, today admitted his role in a scheme to defraud customers out of $708,386, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman
announced.

Robert R. Dattilo, 61, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From 2007 to November 2015, Dattilo conspired with others to defraud certain customers by engaging in fraudulent business practices, including overbilling, charging for more expensive items or larger quantities of items, and providing free items to employees of customers, then
recouping the cost of the items (and additional profits) by overbilling and fraudulent billing.

At Dattilo’s direction, Bayway Lumber inflated the prices on items sold or intentionallyfailed to provide the prices called for in contractual agreements between Bayway Lumber and customers, including the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and its
successor entities...