A onetime employee with an east metro credit union admitted Monday that he cheated a computer parts manufacturer out of nearly $400,000 by selling replacement computer parts that he falsely obtained from the company.
Phillip A. Webb, 46, of Brooklyn Park, pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to mail fraud as part of the scheme that ran from June 2007 to October 2009.
According to his plea agreement:
Webb, as network services manager for the St. Paul Employees Postal Credit Union, notified Cisco Systems Inc. of Bloomington that various parts in the PCU's computer systems were faulty. These reports prompted Cisco to ship replacement parts and require the PCU to send back the faulty parts.
However, Webb would sell the replacement parts on the Internet, then obtain cheaper second-hand parts to return to Cisco and claim they were the defective parts.
In all, Webb returned to Cisco 55 "defective" parts, 42 of which were actually less expensive replacements.
The fraud was estimated by authorities to total $388,000. Sentencing for Webb has yet to be scheduled.
The PCU is based in Woodbury and has outlets in Eagan, Hugo, North St. Paul and West St. Paul.
