Bogus Website, Emails Part of Scheme to Defraud Braintree Company

A 26-year old Revere man has been sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of probation after admitting that he used a fake website and email addresses to try and fool customers at his Braintree renewable energy company into paying him instead of the firm.

Hicham Mziguir pled guilty on Oct. 3 to four indictments and ordered to serve six months of a two and a half year sentence by Judge Kenneth J. Fishman, according to a press release from the Office of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

“In October of 2010 Hicham Mziguir was hired by Angstrom Advanced as a sales associate and engineer, with some background in engineering, computers and foreign language skills,” Morrisey said. “In late January of 2011 one Angstrom client began to receive emails from nick@stat-technology.com stating that he needed to pay a $60,000 fee ahead of schedule.”

Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor had asked the judge for a sentence of two and a half years in the House of Correction, with 18 months to serve, followed by ten years of probation monitoring. Defense attorney Ed McLaughlin requested five years of probation, according to Morrissey's office.

The name Nick from Mziguir's fake email was the name of an official with Angstrom. That email was the first of several, along with other activities "aimed at diverting business and income away from his employer and to himself," Morrissey said.

The fraud "was uncovered by senior officials at the company, and their search of Mziguir’s computer helped establish the extent of the activities. Braintree police took it from there and put together a good, strong case.”

Mziguir's indictments were for Identity Fraud, one indictment for Larceny of Property valued at more than $250, one indictment for forgery, one indictment for perjury and one count of intimidation of a witness.