Another amazing example of mismanagement at The New York Times:
Fraud charges were filed yesterday against a former newspaper delivery man accused of bilking the New York Times for nearly $325,000 by submitting about 8,500 fake subscriptions.
Martin T. Holtet, 50, of 235 S. 19th St., is accused of defrauding the company of $227,000 in delivery fees and $98,000 in printing expenses.
Holtet was arrested Tuesday and made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Madison in the afternoon.According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Holtet delivered papers for the New York Times from 2002 to April 2008.
Holtet was paid for each paper delivered in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
From 2007 to early 2008, the number of subscribers in the La Crosse area jumped from 65 daily and 103 Sunday to 2,781 daily and 2,818 for Sunday papers.
Nearly all of the new subscriptions were submitted on the paper’s Web site with a request to be billed later.
Federal investigators learned a recycling bin outside Holtet’s home regularly would be filled with old papers, many times still wrapped in bundles.
