Yearbook salesman gets two years for scam

Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - A former yearbook salesman will spend the next two-plus years behind bars after he admitted to gouging area colleges and schools and skimming off the top.

Joseph Wenzl also was ordered to hand over $550,000 in restitution as part of a plea deal.

A former regional sales representative for a Taylor Publishing, a Texas-based yearbook company, Wenzl, 41, admitted that he got his bosses to lower their prices because, Wenzl claimed, the competition in the capital region was lethal.

He then went back to schools and charged a higher price, helping himself to the difference, authorities alleged.

Wenzl told his clients to mail payments to Campus Creations, a front company. Wenzl would then send Taylor the discounted amount and close the account.

The scheme netted at least $745,000 between 1998 and 2002, Baltimore's U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein announced in a statement Friday.

A faculty adviser for GW's yearbook, The Cherry Tree, told the university newspaper last year that Wenzl got away with the scam because his prices were still "competitive."

Among the schools taken in were Edmund Burke School in D.C., from which Wenzl obtained an extra $13,000; Fairmont Heights High School in Prince George's County for $24,000; George Washington University, which Wenzl skimmed for more than $25,000; Howard University, worth an extra $190,000 to Wenzl; and the U.S. Naval Academy, which gave Wenzl more than $323,000 extra.

The scheme unraveled in early 2003, when one of the schools called the U.S. attorney's office to report their suspicions, according to a source.

He was indicted two years ago on 15 counts of fraud -- one for every school he allegedly bilked. He pleaded guilty last year.

Got a tip on public corruption or other shenanigans?

Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send an e-mail to bmyers@dcexaminer.com.