Kevin Boardman, who was the aviation director/chief pilot for Elmer’s Glue parent company Berwind Corp. from 1998 until earlier this year, was formally indicted by a grand jury of defrauding his former employer to the tune of at least $2.7 million. According to a release issued yesterday by the Eastern Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney’s Office, Boardman allegedly “devised numerous methods to embezzle money from his employer” between 2006 and last year.
One of those methods was a false invoicing scam, according to the indictment. “Boardman allegedly established two companies, Optical Axes Inc. and Airside Monitor LLC, which were front companies that supplied no goods and provided no services,” the indictment reads. “Optical Axes purportedly operated from Lakewood, New York, and Airside from Dover and Wilmington, Delaware. The indictment alleges that Boardman caused approximately 50 invoices from these front companies to be issued to [Berwind], which paid the invoices by mailing checks to the phony business addresses.”
If convicted, Boardman faces a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment on each of the 10 fraud counts, three years of supervised release, a $2.5 million fine, a $1,000 special assessment and criminal forfeiture.
Berwind currently operates a Gulfstream G650, though it previously had a G550, according to sources. A current LinkedIn profile for Boardman indicates that he left Berwind earlier this year and is seeking work as a G550/650 contract pilot.