Two Salisbury men indicted for stealing over $900,000 from Shore Appliance

BALTIMORE, Md. – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging two Salisbury men with federal conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft in connection to the theft of at least $900,000 from Shore Appliance, where one of the suspects worked.

According to the 10-count indictment, from mid-September of 2016 through around March 2020, 53-year-old Stephen Franklin and 46-year-old Duane Larmore conspired to steal at least $900,000 from a Salisbury company, Shore Appliance Connection, that sold household appliances as well as mattresses and bedding. Larmore was an employee at Shore Appliance whose duties reportedly included maintaining the books and records for the company. Franklin was the Chief Executive Officer of Accurate Optical, headquartered in Salisbury with locations across the Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as being the CEO and part owner of East Coast Optometric, with locations in South Carolina.

The indictment alleges that the defendants stole in excess of $900,000 from Shore Appliance to use for their own purposes, including to make investments and to pay business expenses for Accurate Optical and East Coast Optometric, without the knowledge or consent of the owners of Shore Appliance. The indictment alleges that Franklin and Larmore invested in a $100,000 investment with T.H. in 2016; a $95,000 investment with GenFinance II, PLC, London, U.K., which required an addition $300,000; and then additional funds for a surety bond and travel abroad; an investment through U.S. of $35,000 and an investment through J.B. of $50,000, both in 2018; and in 2019-2020, investments and expenses through I.P. and E.P.S to obtain U.S. currency purportedly returned to the U.S. from humanitarian relief projects abroad, and other similar investments.

We’re told the charges include wire transfers from Shore Appliance’s account to East Coast Optometric and from there to banks in the U.K. and Hong Kong. The indictment alleges that no investment paid any return to the co-schemers.

To conceal how much money had been taken from Shore Appliance and to obtain cash, the defendants reportedly used the identities of the owners to enter into factoring contracts, to allow them to obtain cash quickly by leveraging accounts receivable. The factoring contracts purportedly between Shore Appliance and various factoring companies, provided cash deposits to Shore Appliance’s bank accounts that encumbered the accounts receivable of Shore Appliance and required payments and interest of more than $725,000. In addition, the defendants allegedly used Larmore’s position of trust with Shore Appliance and signature authority over its bank accounts to draw on Shore Appliance’s lines of credit with two separate financial institutions to obtain another $200,000 to conceal their use of funds from Shore Appliance.

Larmore then allegedly used his own email address and cell phone number with factors but identified that email address and cell phone number as belonging to Owner #1. Larmore also reportedly provided details of the owners’ identities, including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and Maryland drivers’ licenses without their permission.

The indictment alleges that the signatures of the owners were forged and Franklin witnessed or notarized the fraudulent signatures, and that Larmore and a female employee of Franklin’s posed as the owners in telephone conversations with representatives from the factoring companies. When Franklin’s companies had financial problems, Larmore allegedly provided funds from Shore Appliance for Franklin’s companies at Franklin’s request.

If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud conspiracy, and for each of seven counts of wire fraud, and a mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for each of two counts of identity theft. The defendants are expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, however, no date has been scheduled yet.