N.J. janitorial company owner sentenced to 50 months in prison for $2 million fraud scheme

When the FBI knocked on Mitchell Bleicher’s door, he knew the jig was up.

Bleicher, 53, of Camden County, the former owner of a Berlin-based janitorial supply company, admitted to authorities that he stole nearly $2 million in an elaborate fraud scheme and used it to fund a lavish lifestyle. With the money he netted, he paid for two Rolls-Royces, Rolex watches, two Subaru automobiles, motorcycles, several guns, home renovations, and his children’s college tuition.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler sentenced Bleicher on Wednesday to 50 months in prison for submitting fraudulent bills from his company, Allied Materials, to a customer and failing to pay taxes on the proceeds of his crimes.

Additionally, Kugler sentenced Bleicher to three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $9.5 million in restitution to the company and $584,255 in restitution to the IRS for defrauding the agency of $578,902 in income-tax revenue.

In court Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson urged the judge to send Bleicher to prison, saying that would deter others from committing similar crimes. He said Bleicher deserved to spend years behind bars.

“He wanted to live above his means,” Richardson said. “He did it for greed.”

In a bid for leniency, friends appeared in court and described Bleicher as a kind and philanthropic family man.

The judge was unmoved. “It’s easy to be charitable with other people’s money,” he said.

Bleicher told Kugler he knew his actions were wrong, but once the scheme started, he said, he couldn’t seem to stop. He said the best day of his life was when the FBI knocked on his door.

“I’m humiliated and embarrassed, and I will spend the rest of my life in and out of prison enduring that punishment,” he said.

Bleicher pleaded guilty in February to submitting invoices that falsely listed products Allied claimed it had delivered to a Cherry Hill company, identified in court as an automobile manufacturer with multiple locations across the country, between 2009 and 2018.

To execute the scheme, Bleicher paid a contractor in the facilities department of the company. When that contractor left the job, he continued with a successor, providing him with expensive dinners and wines, and taking him to professional sports events, including 76ers games. Bleicher later recruited a third employee to submit fraudulent invoices for payment.

Allied sold janitorial and cleaning supplies, office and break room supplies, food service items, safety equipment, and business printing and imprinted items. The firm’s property at 255 Cross Keys Rd. has been sold, and Bleicher’s attorney, Robert Welsh, said Wednesday he would deliver around $97,400 in proceeds from the sale to the government toward the required restitution.

Before handing down the sentence, Kugler said Bleicher had many opportunities to stop the scheme before authorities confronted him. However, the judge said he believed that Bleicher had demonstrated “extreme” remorse.

He ordered Bleicher to report to prison by Sept. 2, allowing him time to send one of his children to college.

The family’s "entire lifestyle was destroyed the day the FBI came knocking on the door,” Kugler said.