Richard Rimbaugh (Copyright: New York Post)
In the culmination of ‘Operation Sticky Fingers’, the leader of a huge organised crime ring has pleaded guilty to several charges.
Last month, The Recycler reported that a ringleader of a US crime ring pleaded guilty to his involvement.
Now LongIsland has revealed that Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced the “guilty pleas of two more defendants”, among them the theft ring’s leader, Richard Rimbaugh, who was known as the “General”. These convictions are the culmination of Schneiderman’s 10-month probe, dubbed ‘Operation Sticky Fingers’, which investigated the theft of over 5,300 ink cartridges and other electronic items.
Yesterday, Rimbaugh pleaded guilty to “enterprise corruption, criminal possession of stolen property in the second degree, and money laundering in the second degree.”
He admitted that, over the last 5 years or more, he “instructed several theft crews to steal specific printer ink cartridges, computer software and other consumer retail electronics”. He also “dictated the price that the theft crews would receive for the stolen merchandise, typically paying between 30-50% of the retail value, then resold the stolen merchandise on the Internet through his illegitimate business, American Media Soft”, an operation he managed right out of his apartment in Manhattan.
Rimbaugh and a fellow member of the crime ring, George Rapatsouleas, will be sentenced by Judge Maxwell Whiley in the New York State Supreme Court in December 2017.
Rimbaugh will receive a sentence of between 3 and 9 years imprisonment and will also have to forfeit a sum of almost $7.3 million (€6.2 million).