Ex-Prosecutor Accused in Alleged RICO Scheme to Bilk Corporate Client of $3M
A former federal prosecutor who has been working as outside counsel for the U.S. headquarters of Glock has been accused with two other defendants of attempting to bilk the Austrian-based gunmaker of $3 million.
James Harper III, 55, who also was a candidate for state attorney general a decade ago, is charged with theft by taking and violation of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Although details in the article are sketchy concerning the indictment handed down last week by a Cobb County grand jury, it says the defendants are accused of operating a scheme between 2000 and early last year and that “in concert with one another and with others [they] did, through a pattern of racketeering activity, unlawfully take and/or endeavor to take the property and/or money of another in the approximate amount of $3 million from Glock.”
The indictment says Harper and the two other defendants transferred assets from Glock, which has its U.S. headquarters in Smyrna, Ga., not far from Atlanta, to bank accounts for their own personal use.
Harper was released on $100,000 bond.
Additional and related coverage:
Associated Press: “3 men indicted for trying to steal $3 million from gun maker Glock’s US office near Atlanta”
Business Week (Sept. 2009): “Glock’s Secret Path to Profits”
