Owner Of Bulk Mailing Company Sentenced To 18 Months In Prison For Multimillion-Dollar Fraud

NEWARK, N.J. – One of the operators of Clevett Worldwide Mailers LLC, a Succasunna, N.J., bulk mailing house, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for defrauding clients of more than $1 million through a fraudulent bulk-mailing scheme in which he shredded millions of pieces of mail rather than delivering them, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Harold Clevett, 68, of Middlesex, N.J., previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge McNulty imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

Clevett’s son, Mark Clevett, 37, of Randolph, N.J., who owned and operated the business with his father, also previously pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Feb. 24, 2014.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Mark Clevett owned, and both Clevetts operated, Clevett Worldwide Mailers, which contracted with international and domestic customers to handle large mailings. Customers sent their mail jobs to Clevett Worldwide Mailers for sorting, addressing and delivery to the post office. The company received fees for each piece of mail and for the total weight of the mail that it handled.

Both father and son admitted that rather than sending their clients’ mail as contracted, they directed their employees to throw away all or part of it, and even called in a shredding company to destroy unsent mail.

Mark and Harold Clevett also acknowledged they charged their customers for the full amount of the mailings, even sending some of their customers fraudulent postal forms to make it appear as though the mailings were delivered. The pair admitted that between 2007 and June 2011, they discarded and shredded nearly 3 million pieces of customer mail and reaped nearly $1 million in illicit profits.

In addition to the prison term, Judge McNulty sentenced Harold Clevett to serve one year of supervised release, six months of which will be home confinement and ordered him to pay restitution of $999,461.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Agarwal and Michael Robertson of the U.S Attorney’s Office in Newark. 

14-106                                                                  

Defense counsel:
Harold Clevett: Brian J. Neary Esq., Hackensack, N.J.
Mark Clevett: Don Larsen Esq., Montville, N.J.