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Friday, May 16, 2003

By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Four men have been indicted in federal court in Pittsburgh as part of a nationwide crackdown on Internet fraud called "Operation E-Con" that will be announced today in Washington, D.C., by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Three of the indictments involved local men charged with selling items online that they didn't own and had no intention of delivering. They used eBay and other Internet auction sites.

A fourth man from Germany is also under indictment here because some of his victims live in the federal court's Western District of Pennsylvania.

The indictments name as defendants Rajit Duggal, 26, of Monroeville; Keith B. Condon, 19, of the North Side; Jeffrey Alan Diller, 34, of Tarentum; and Mario Koch, 30, of Ingolstadt, Germany.

The U.S. attorney's staff would not discuss the cases in detail, but the indictments indicate the men repeatedly sold items online that they didn't own and then had payments sent to various addresses.

None of the men was connected with any of the others, but all are being prosecuted as part of Operation E-Con.

According to the indictments, Duggal, sometimes using the name "Michael Booker," sent e-mails to eBay customers and offered to sell items such as cameras and sound systems. Customers paid him through the "Paypal" online payment service and delivered checks to an address he established at Mail Boxes Etc. on Mall Boulevard in Monroeville.

Duggal defrauded customers from across the United States from October 2001 through June 2002, according to the indictment. Ronald James Wiest of Cottage Grove, Minn., for example, paid for a $629 Sony digital camera kit that he never received.

Condon and Koch pulled similar schemes, according to the grand jury.

Diller began his operation in 1999, prosecutors said, when he advertised Beanie Babies and Beanie Baby cards online and had customers send payments to an address on Cambridge Street in Harrison. When customers complained about not receiving their merchandise, police investigated, but Diller fled and disappeared.

In 2000, he resurfaced using a new Internet name and a new address for payments at the same Mail Boxes Etc. used by Duggal. When customers complained again that they weren't getting their items, the charges say, Diller put them off by saying he was sick.