Children’s of Alabama Hospital
John David Nichols will spend 27 months in jail and pay over half a million dollars in damages.
According to AL.com Nichols personally pocketed $234,000 (€179,176) in the fraud scheme that cost the Children’s of Alabama Hospital $567,942 (€434,879), which entailed a series of scams lasting from August 2010 to March 2012 wherein Nichols used a computer inventory system to order toner cartridges for the hospital, which he sold on to an innocent cartridge recycling company called Image Craft.
Nichols worked on-site at the hospital as a printer service technician for Tech-Optics Inc., who will also see some of the damages, from October 2009 until October 2011, with Tech-Optics providing device maintenance, repair and new cartridges for printers in the hospital. Despite the contract ending between the hospital and Tech-Optics in October 2011, Nichols continued to work at the hospital for another company, Ameri-Tek, and continued the fraud until March 2012.
It is estimated that between August 2010 and March 2012 Nichols sold over 6,000 items to Image Craft, with almost 5,000 of these being printer cartridges. Other products included laptops, printers, printer parts and fax machines. Children’s of Alabama paid $426,986 (€326,947) to Tech-Optics for the products sold to Image Craft, and ceased payment in December 2011, leaving a balance due to Tech-Optics of $140,956 (€107,931). Nichols will have to pay back the total amount despite only keeping $234,000 for himself.
He was discovered during an FBI investigation, in which he admitted the crime and said he had used the money to “get caught up”. During sentencing, he stated that he was “deeply remorseful for everything I have done”, and asked that he might have a shorter sentence and pay no fines before paying back the full amount. He added that he had “made some poor decisions following a time where he was financially desperate and emotionally destitute”.
Nichols, charged with wire fraud last October and then pleading guilty, must also serve three years’ probation for the crime, with the sentence demanded by US Attorney Henry Cornelius stated to be due to Nichols “engaging in persistent fraud over the course of about 18 months”. US District Court Judge Scott Coogler handed down the sentence, noting that “the volume of items sold, over approximately 18 months, suggests a persistent and determined state of mind”.