NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A former senior vice president of a scrap metal recycling firm is headed to prison for his role in a 17-year conspiracy that defrauded customers out of millions of dollars.
Michael Valenti III received a 30-month sentence Monday and will have to pay restitution, though that amount hasn’t been determined. The 45-year-old Hasbrouck Heights resident had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Valenti was a senior vice president of sales at Secaucus-based Cinelli Iron & Metal Co., which operated three scrap metal recycling facilities in New Jersey.
Federal prosecutors say Valenti and others with the firm used a variety of fraudulent business practices to buy scrap metal from customers for less than what the company should have paid. The firm then resold the scrap metal at a profit.
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