NORTH BERGEN AND BEYOND — A North Bergen man may be the cleanest, smoothest guy in prison after being sentenced last January to 21 months incarceration and to paying $92,142 in connection with a scheme to affix barcodes from cheaper items to more expensive items in Wal-Mart. Those items reportedly included razors and tooth whitening strips.
The man is also a bit luckier today, after — according to published reports — he was recently given a reduced sentence.
The U.S. Attorney General’s website in Kansas City, Mo., where he was sentenced, had first said in January: “A North Bergen, N.J., man was sentenced in federal court today for using fraudulent bar code stickers to defraud Wal-Mart stores of more than $92,000. Faris Nayel Salem, 28, of North Bergen, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple[!] this morning to 21 months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Salem to pay $92,142 in restitution. As a special condition of his release, the court ordered that Salem not enter any Wal-Mart store during three years of supervised release following his prison term.
But according to the Kansas City Star on Tuesday, Salem may get a reduced sentence because the appeals court noted that there was no proof that he made the bar codes himself.
They report: “A man who used phony bar codes to buy mass quantities of razors and Crest White Strips at area Wal-Marts will return to district court to be re-sentenced …His 21-month term included a sentencing enhancement for producing unauthorized devices. But the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion today that the enhancement was inappropriate.”
No word from Judge Whipple on whether Charmin squeezing was also involved.
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