April 28, 2006
Man pleads guilty in ad scam against Corps
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


The Marine Corps was swindled out of more than $125,000 in an advertising scheme in 2001 that federal investigators say revolved around fraudulent charges for advertising in phony minority publications.

George M. Pilgrim of Los Angeles pleaded guilty April 17 to multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion, a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Pilgrim, who claimed he was an heir to the William Randolph Hearst media empire, could face up to 70 years in prison and will forfeit $810,000 and a Mercedes Benz SL55 in the plea deal.


In August 2001, Pilgrim bombarded Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va., with faxes containing advertising in voices for publications such as “Black Business Today,” “Minorities in Business” and “The Progressive Woman,” none of which ever existed. Pilgrim scammed the Corps out of $125,000 over the next 10 months for the false ads, all charged on a government credit card, according to a copy of the 15-count charging document.

Maj. Wes Hayes, Recruiting Command spokesman, declined to comment on the specifics of the 5-year-old case, saying in a written statement that “the assessment of how we do business in regards to Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s marketing and advertising was evaluated and that’s how we were able to determine that this fraud had been committed and also assist with the conviction of the criminal in this case.

“Because of our adjustments in how we do business in marketing and advertising, that particular fraud could not happen again,” the statement added.

Pilgrim was charged with scamming 33 victims out of nearly $2 million over several years. His scheme was to inundate companies and government agencies with backdated invoices for advertisements that never ran in publications that never existed.

Pilgrim will be sentenced Oct. 16 in U.S District Court, the office said.

Ellie