Department of Justice

United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello
Northern District of California
www.usdoj.gov/usao/can

SAN JOSE SCAMMER SENTENCED TO 87 MONTHS IN PRISON

San Jose Man Tricked Massachusetts Company Into Delivering
Over $730,000 in Precious Metals to Agilent, Inc.

SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that Troy M. Urie, a/k/a Mudiaga Obijuru Urie, was sentenced yesterday afternoon to serve a term of 87 months in prison and ordered to pay a total of $732,595 to Alfa Aesar, Inc., a precious metals distributor based in Ward Hill, Massachusetts.  The sentence followed Mr. Urie’s conviction by a federal jury on four felony counts, including Conspiracy, Mail Fraud, and Wire Fraud. The sentence was imposed by The Honorable Ronald M. Whyte, United States District Judge, sitting in San Jose, who also ordered Mr. Urie to serve a three-year term of supervised release following his release from custody.

Mr. Urie, 36, originally from Nigeria but most recently living in San Jose, was convicted on April 8, 2008, following a one-week jury trial.

Mr. Urie, along with a co-defendant, Gabriel Orji, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 23, 2006.  The indictment alleged that Urie, Orji, and others conspired to defraud Alfa Aesar by inducing that company to ship over $730,000 in precious metals, including gold and palladium, to Agilent, Inc., in Palo Alto.  According to the indictment, the conspirators created an e-mail account that was misleadingly designed to appear to be a legitimate account of an Agilent executive.  Impersonating that executive, the conspirators placed a fraudulent “order” for  precious metals.  When the items were delivered, a co-conspirator, recruited by Mr. Urie and purportedly acting at the behest of the Agilent executive, picked up the shipment and drove off with it.  (It should be emphasized that Agilent was also a victim of the scheme, as the company and its employees were unaware that they were being impersonated in order for the conspirators to carry out their scheme.)

The jury also heard evidence that Mr. Urie was involved in a similar fraud in Sacramento in which he and other co-conspirators attempted to defraud another precious metals company, New Jersey-based Englehard Corporation, into shipping over $11 million worth of products to Sanmina, Inc., a San Jose company.  Evidence introduced at trial showed that Mr. Urie rented a warehouse in Sacramento and outfitted it to appear as if it were a legitimate Sanmina  location.  Fortunately, as the jury heard, an Englehard employee became suspicious and, after further investigation, notified the FBI.  At the direction of the FBI, Englehard proceeded to send a (ruse) shipment to the “Sanmina” warehouse in Sacramento; after it was delivered, Urie and other suspects were arrested.  (Charges have been filed against Mr. Urie in Sacramento.  He is scheduled to appear there on July 21, 2008.)

AUSAs Shashi Kewalramani and David Callaway prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States Attorney.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Further Information:

Case #: CR 06-00196 RMW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can<http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can>.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.<http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/>

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.

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