BRIEF: Oakmont woman pleads guilty in major fraud scheme

Sep 20, 2008 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- AXP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sep. 20--An Oakmont woman has admitted to her role in a scheme to defraud American Express of hundreds of thousands of dollars, federal authorities said Friday.

Susan Fawcett, 48, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, was accused of opening an American Express merchant account to accept bogus charges from co-conspirators with business accounts through the same credit card company.

Prosecutors said charges against Lawrence Konter, 58, of Shadyside are pending.

Fawcett and Konter are accused of charging hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of services never rendered to the American Express business accounts and providing the credit card company with fake names in order to avoid internal company controls to detect fraud.

To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index