PHILADELPHIA -- A federal grand jury has indicted five men on mail-fraud charges for allegedly rigging promotional sweepstakes to swindle about $1.37 million from six major corporations.
The 12-count indictment, handed down Thursday, contends that members of the C.B. Seidman Marketing Group Inc. of Wynnewood selected winners instead of drawing them at random in a number of nationwide contests.
The sweepstakes were sponsored by the Atlantic Refining and Marketing Co., American Motors Corp., Alpo Petfoods Inc., Holiday Inns Inc., Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, and Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Two of the defendants in the case are the company's co-owners, Charles Seidman, 38, of Merion, and Steven Gross, 39, of nearby Narberth.
Two other defendants -- James Parker, 33, of Lansdowne, and Anthony Dandridge, 39, also known as Anthony Bates, of Richmond, Va., -- have been accused of fraudulently receiving prizes.
According to the indictment, Parker was a 'pre-selected winner' of a Cadillac Allante in the Trump Plaza's 'Central Park Drive-In Dreamstakes' in 1987.
Parker allegedly worked with Gross and Seidman that year to select winners for Georgia-Pacific's 'Coronet Great American Giveaway Game.'
Dandridge, the indictment said, was the pre-selected winner of $200,000 in the 1988 'Alpo Trivia Game.'
Dandridge allegedly kept only $10,000 of his winnings, the remainder being kicked back to Seidman and Gross.
The fifth defendant, Lewis Mazzio Jr., 23, of Gladwyne, Montgomery County, was named in the indictment as an officer of C.B. Seidman Fulfillment Service Inc., an affiliate of the marketing company.
The indictment alleges that Seidman, Gross and the others defrauded the companies of $1.26 million, which was the amount the companies paid the marketing group to run the contests.
Also, more than $43,000 in cash and nearly $64,000 worth of cars were awarded to the bogus winners, making the total amount of fraud about $1.37 million, the indictment contends.
If convicted on all counts, Seidman and Gross could each receive maximum sentences of 60 years in prison and be fined $2.79 million.
