Genesee County Man Pleads Guilty To Defrauding Customers

Attorney General Spitzer and New York Division of State Police Superintendent James W. McMahon today announced that the owner of a Genesee County trucking and construction equipment dealer pleaded guilty to a class "E" felony for defrauding customers by failing to deliver purchased merchandise and by failing to turn over money due for goods sold on consignment such as dump-trucks, bull-dozers and tractor-trailers.

Gerald K. Freeman, 50, of Alden pleaded guilty on Friday, February 22 in Genesee County Court before Judge Robert C. Noonan to one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class "E" felony. Freeman admitted to stealing, through a scheme to defraud, more than $128,000 from six victims throughout the northeast.

The crime was committed while Freeman operated Broadway Truck Sales, Inc., and Broadway Sales and Service, Inc., located in the Town of Darien. The plea was based on allegations that Freeman obtained thousands of dollars from customers by falsely promising to deliver trucks and equipment that his customers had paid for in advance. It was further alleged that Freeman sold equipment belonging to other customers, which he had received on consignment, and that he pocketed the proceeds of those sales. The largest incident involved a customer who was swindled out of an advance payment of $38,000 for a dump truck and trailer which Freeman falsely promised to deliver.

Freeman is scheduled to be sentenced May 20, 2002. The maximum sentence for a class "E" felony is a sentence of one and one-third to four years in state prison.

The case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Mary C. Baumgarten of the Attorney General's Criminal Prosecutions Bureau and Investigator Robert C. Sulecki of the New York Division of State Police.