FOX 4 WFTX - Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples News, WeatherDid Office Depot overcharge Lee County taxpayers?
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David Sherwin is proud to be a whistleblower.
"I pay taxes for this school district, and I'm not going to let Office Depot rip them off." Sherwin claims he uncovered pricing fraud a little more than a year ago, and got fired the next day. Now he wants to help get taxpayers their money back.
"As we started to look at that in the last ten days, we decided it was important for us to get on this, and that's what we're doing," said Lee School's Superintendent James Browder about the outside audit the School Board ordered today.
"Once he did receive my full packet," said Sherwin, of a guide, he claims, shows how Office Depot scammed government customers, "I told him who to contact."
Superintendent Dr. James Browder says a couple years ago, Office Depot made the district order supplies on line, instead of by catalog. Sherwin says, when Office Depot did that, the company also managed to hide price hikes.
"I've had experts go through this with me," he said of his "fraud guide", ''And say Office Depot's plan is more sophisticated than Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme."
On the Office Depot website, on a "Frequently Asked Questions" page, the company acknowledges the allegations made by David Sherwin. It also admits six states - including Florida - are investigating the company for fraud, but scroll down to the last question, and the answer is that all the allegations are false.
That's false says Sherwin, who gave Four In Your Corner a copy of a check he says shows Office Depot gave the Charlotte County government a refund of more than $75,000.
"This is ripping off the taxpayers of Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Now he's calling on five other Southwest Florida Governments to check into possible fraud, and see if taxpayers paid too much. The Lee County School District stopped buying from Office Depot, and says it will now track its suppliers much more closely.
CHRISTINA BAILEY, REPORTER
cbailey@fox4now.com
