MINNEAPOLIS – The former internet technology manager for St. Paul Employees Postal CU admitted Monday that he cheated a computer parts manufacturer out of nearly $400,000 by selling on the Internet replacement computer parts that he falsely obtained from the credit union.
Phillip Webb, 46, pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to mail fraud as part of the scheme that ran from June 2007 to October 2009.
Webb notified Cisco Systems that various parts in the credit union’s computer systems were faulty. These reports prompted Cisco to ship replacement parts and require the credit union 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.
Webb returned a total of 55 “defective” parts to Cisco, 42 of which were actually less expensive replacements.
Sentencing in the case has not been scheduled.
