LR Men Plead Guilty to Wire Fraud Conspiracy, Costing CTEH $560,000

Two Little Rock men pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to a $560,000 scheme that involved selling their employer’s cell phones online and keeping the proceeds.   

Daniel Burdick, 40, and Brian Lamb, 41, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which resulted in a loss of $562,501 for their employer, the Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health of North Little Rock, which helps in environmental cleanups, according to a news release issued by U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland of the Eastern District of Arkansas. 

The men’s job duties included ordering new phones for CTEH employees and subcontractors for them to use during environmental spills and cleanups. 

But they were also ordering phones without CTEH knowing about the purchases. They would then sell those phones online. “Most of the phones were sent to a customer in Oregon, who shipped them to China,” the news release said.

Between 2013-17, they completed 283 transactions and most of those included more than one cell phone.

In November 2017, the company discovered the crime. At the time Burdick had worked for CTEH for 10 years and Lamb had been with the company for six years.

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud could result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of not more than $250,000, or both. 

They will be sentenced at a later date.