A former AMD distributor has walked free from 47 criminal charges after AMD executives refused to testify in a case that AMD orchastrated. Now questions are being asked about AMD business practises.
The case, which has cost millions to bring to court, centred on allegations that Doan had falsely claimed co-op dollars for advertising in IT publications. It was alleged by
What is being questioned is how an alledged case of co-op dollar fraud was not detected by
Last month, the NSW DPP dramatically dropped the case against Doan, who had been charged with 47 criminal offences under section 176a of the crimes act relating to direct cheat and fraud. He was also charged with using a false instrument to obtain benefit.
During the investigation Doan told investigators that his defence was based on the fact that executives at
Among those to have left in
Ngat Doan told SOR that all he wants to do now is get on with his life and put the experience behind him. “My life has been hell for me and my family. All I want to do is move on and run my business”. A close friend of Doan, who is also the managing director of an IT distribution company, said: “
Uncooperative Witness
One of the persons nominated by Doan as knowing of the alledged prior arrangement was
Smith said there were various reasons as to why this case was dropped. “For one, we had to prove that the invoices at the centre of the case were not authorised by
Smith also told SOR that should witnesses become available, the DPP would have no hesitation in re-listing the case which a magistrate’s court, on the basis of the evidence, had committed for trial before a jury before the DPP ‘No Billed’ it last month.
Detective senior sergent Allen Miller, of the NSW fraud squad, claims the case should not have been dropped. Miller was responsible for collaborating evidence collected by
The original evidence for the case was collected privately by
When the allegations first surfaced three years ago Doan told me that he was “being set up” He alleged that
In 2003, solicitors from Baker McKenzie approached DWR Media, the then publishers of Computer Reseller News of which I was the CEO and editorial director. They put forward several invoices which they alleged
No Answer
When SOR approached
He didn’t. Instead
Several days after talking to him, Bruce Smith of the DPP phoned SOR claiming he had never spoken to 4Square Media. He said: “I have received information that you are writing a story on Ngat Doan. As far as I am concerned I have not done any interviews with the media on this matter. I have a policy of not talking to the media.” When I pointed out that I had personally phoned him as a witness who had been summonsed to give evidence in the case he said: “As far as I am concerned I don’t recall speaking to you and I don’t want to be quoted.” Smith phoned me on a direct line which we believe was supplied by solicitors Baker McKenzie. What SOR has been able to establish is that Smith received a call from solicitors for
Business Practices
What
We also wanted to know what type of business practices the company implemented in
In an interview with SOR, Intel’s managing director Phil Cronin, said: “I find it hard to believe that the alledged fraud went on for so long. It appears that there was a lack of good business practices. At Intel we audit extensively both co-op dollar expenditure and the flow of processors in and out of our distributors. This is expected of a
The fact that witnesses are not available is no fault of
Doan is currently considering his legal position now that evidence relating to his criminal charges has not been presented before a jury. It is believed that Doan will seek compensation from
Calls to Daylite Technologies reveal the company is currently distributing product for several vendors including HP, Canon, Microsoft, Creative Pacific and D-Link.
See David Richards’ Comment in SmartHouse Reseller.