A small "Woman-Owned" and "Certified Small Business", which opened in 1959, as an Authorized Copier Dealership in Monterey, CA. Had proceeds checks totalling over $880,000 stolen from them by their copier manufacturer, SAVIN Corporation, which is owned by Ricoh.in addition, Ricoh also sells copiers under the Gestetner, Lanier, and Monroe brands, as well as SAVIN.
In late 1999, PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric), the largest utility company in Northern California, awarded a large copier contract to a "Woman-Owned" Business, The Madden Company, under PG&E's "Supplier Diversity Program". This was designed to assist Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned and Disabled-Owned companies to receive new business contracts from PG&E.
After The Madden Company received this multi-million dollar contract, their manufacturer, SAVIN Corporation, then stole the subsequent PG&E Purchase Orders. SAVIN then fraudulently created false invoices, representing themselves as The Madden Company on the invoices and submitted them to PG&E. SAVIN then stole at least the first seven of the subsequent PG&E Dealer Proceeds checks, totalling over $880,000.
SAVIN then cashed the checks, which PG&E had made payable to "The Madden Company" without getting any approval or authorization to do so. It appears that SAVIN then had the funds transferred out of the State, to their Corporate bank account. These multiple out of state transactions would also qualify this case under the RICO Act provisions, and have the potential to greatly increase the plaintiff's financial award of the case.
The Madden Company has attempted over the past 5 years to have SAVIN reimburse them for the lost revenues for this new account they obtained through their "Woman-Owned Business" status from PG&E. SAVIN has continued to claim no wrongdoing through their attorneys, and threatened to cancel The Madden Company's Authorized Dealership if they didn't stop pursuing SAVIN. Their Dealership was cancelled by SAVIN on March 31st of last year.
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