Chandler Police Make Arrest in Recycling Fraud Case
For Immediate Release
Thursday July 31, 2008

CHANDLER, AZ. On July 31, 2008 at approximately 6:30am, Dennis Delbert McKinney (70) was arrested at his Chandler residence on several fraud charges. McKinney operates a private recycling business, “McKinney Recycling” where he operates a refuse truck and picks up recycled newspapers on an independent route. McKinney then delivers his recycled paper to the victim, Abitibi-Bowater at 390 East Ray Road in Chandler, Arizona, where he sells it to them for an agreed amount. McKinney has several personally owned newspaper recycle bins throughout the Phoenix area, which are labeled “Help the Children of China”, “Save Arizona’s Resources” and “Boy Scouts”. Each recycle bin is also labeled with his personal residential phone number. McKinney has no business licenses, no corporation commission listings, and no evidence of any non-profit associations. All of McKinney’s payments for his deliveries have gone directly into his personal banking accounts.

In order to document his delivery and bill the victim, McKinney is required to drive onto a federally regulated scale at Abitibi-Bowater upon his arrival. McKinney records his full vehicle weight and is then required to deliver the paper to an assigned loading dock area.  Once his vehicle is unloaded, McKinney is then required to return to the scale to document his emptied vehicle weight. McKinney is required to record the difference and submit this billing invoice to the victim.

McKinney would arrive at the Abitibi-Bowater location prior to business hours and obtain an original full weight. After waiting approximately an hour for the facility gates to open, McKinney would then partially back off of the facility scales to fraudulently record a lighter weight to show the appearance that his vehicle was empty. McKinney would then proceed to the assigned loading dock to deliver the recycled paper. However, instead of truly delivering the paper to the loading dock, McKinney unloaded only a portion of the paper and then fraudulently billed Abitibi-Bowater for the fabricated invoice amounts.

During an approximate five-month investigation, McKinney has fraudulently billed the victim upon each delivery, and he has been identified as the source of approximately 270 tons of missing inventory over the course of a year. Through deception, McKinney was being paid approximately $30,000 for his invoiced amounts of paper rather than the true amounts. It should be noted that McKinney has been collecting these recycled newspapers under the guise of raising funds for a charitable collection and donation effort. McKinney was arrested and charged with Fraud Schemes for approximately 40 separate fraudulent transactions and forged invoices.