Two Salisbury Men Indicted for Fraud totalling 900,000 dollars

SALISBURY, MD-

Two Salisbury men are being indicted in federal court for stealing and embezzling nearly 900,000 involving 2 Salisbury businesses. 

The newly unsealed federal indictment alleges from the Acting Maryland State’s Attorney alleges that for nearly 6 years, the two men, Stephen Franklin and Duane Larmore defrauded Shore Appliance Connection by opening phony loans they had no intention of paying back.

Instead, the men used the men leveraged the ability of Shore Appliance to receive loans from banks, and instead invested the money on the stock market,  declared it as income for other businesses such as Accurate Optical, all while impersonating and stealing the identity of the owner of Shore Appliance.

The indictment also details that Laramore and Franklin at one point impersonated the victims of the scheme to a bank, all to extend Shore Appliances credit line even further and receiving more loans to keep their illegal payday going.

“The two defendants diverted that cash to their own bank accounts into investments they were making and would not have been able to make on their own were it not for the money they stole from the victim business,” said Acting US Attorney for Maryland Jonothan Lenzner.

Lenzner says his office credits the cooperation of the FBI with bringing forth evidence of wrongdoing but declined to comment on how they or his office became aware of the wrongdoing or what methods were used to track the fraudulent activity.

He says his office is asking for forfeiture from the two men, which if convicted will allow restitution to be made to Shore Appliance Connections which he says had a business operation and its credit harmed as a result of the scam.