British man sentenced to five years in US prison for purchasing HP products at “undeserved” discounts.
San Jose Mercury News reported that 48-year-old Mark Allan James, from Stockport, UK, has been sentenced by a Houston court to five years in jail for conspiracy after he was found to have been involved in “the purchased of computers and equipment at undeserved large discounts” from HP.
According to prosecutors, since 2009 James had “recruited businesses to buy computer items” from HP and “wrongly took advantage” of the OEM’s discount plan, which was “meant for large-volume purchasers”; with the equipment purchased at a discount “in agreements for use only by those companies”, but “then resold”.
In addition to the prison sentence, which James will serve in a US prison, US District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered James to pay restitution of nearly $13.4 million (€10.7 million).