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Published - Wednesday, August 06, 2008

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La Crosse man accused of bilking New York Times


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Federal wire fraud charges were filed Tuesday against a former La Crosse newspaper delivery man accused of bilking the New York Times for nearly $325,000 by submitting about 8,500 fake subscriptions.

Martin T. Holtet, 50, of 235 S. 19th St., is accused of defrauding the company of $227,000 in delivery fees and $98,000 in printing expenses.
Holtet was arrested Tuesday and made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Madison in the afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Holtet delivered papers for the New York Times from 2002 to April 2008.

Holtet was paid for each paper delivered in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

From 2007 to early 2008, the number of subscribers in the La Crosse area jumped from 65 daily and 103 Sunday to 2,781 daily and 2,818 for Sunday papers.

Nearly all of the new subscriptions were submitted on the paper’s Web site with a request to be billed later.

The Times began shipping the papers and sent invoices to the new subscribers, often to multiple names at the same address. When many of the bills began coming back as undeliverable and others went unpaid, the newspaper cancelled more than 3,000 subscriptions without receiving any complaints from subscribers.

When told of the cancellation, Holtet did not seem upset and said it would not affect his workload, a company official told investigators.

Holtet blamed a subcontractor who delivers the papers and said he had little control over the account and merely passed the payments on to that person, the complaint stated.

Federal investigators later learned a recycling bin outside Holtet’s home regularly would be filled with old papers, many times still wrapped in bundles.

Holtet was released Tuesday and ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Sept. 9.

Dan Springer can be reached at (608) 791-8269 or dspringer@lacrossetribune.com.
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2centsworth wrote on Aug 9, 2008 7:48 AM:

" 50 years old and a paper boy?? Knew this guy from school, never was quite right, but he sure knew how to pull this off for quite sometime. maybe he smarter than we all think. I bet he collects welfare too, for a "learning disability!" "

down2512 wrote on Aug 7, 2008 12:11 PM:

" Thanks Holtet! another reason the rest of the states have to laugh, ridicule and distrust people from LaCrosse Wisconsin. Your a dandy and I hope you get some serious time in a New York state prison-you've earned it. "

ckw91977 wrote on Aug 7, 2008 1:16 AM:

" IM still Jackson.... You went to school?

Congrats!
That is the first step in getting out of Lax with out doing time before you go!

Good luck with That! "

Im Still Jackson wrote on Aug 6, 2008 11:23 PM:

" davidinlse: Actually I said exactly what I meant to say. I will try to make it clearer for your challenged intelect. The newspaper guy is poor and will go to Jail not only is the intent clear but he didnt pay the NY times back what he embezzeled stole ect.. the other fella im talking about I went to school with and comes from a wealthy family and still stole half a million bucks from Dahl ford and got a slap on the wrist after repaying it.
I know plenty! "

davidinlse wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:48 PM:

" RE:Im Still Jackson wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:41 PM: Your posting made no sense whatever. What are you trying to say, please no convoluted babble, what did you try to say? He's wealthy? What do you know? Little I think. "

Im Still Jackson wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:41 PM:

" Cheif: on the contrary the poor sap will probaby go to prison simply because of the intent and not repaying it back as one of our local dealership employee's born with a silver spoon in his mouth did that embezzeled a half million dollars.I hear his slap on the wrist is all better now. "

chief wrote on Aug 6, 2008 7:55 PM:

" This is a terrible crime, and I'll bet Judge Gonzales will give you what you deserve, 30 days probation. "

Greenlite wrote on Aug 6, 2008 2:55 PM:

" Boy, that's alot of toilet paper, which is about what that liberal trash newspaper is worth. "

bigphish wrote on Aug 6, 2008 1:55 PM:

" dullard-- congratulations! you must have done wonderful in grammar class...good boy!! NY Times should be free anyways...not even worth the paper it is written on. "

dullard wrote on Aug 6, 2008 1:02 PM:

" 12citrus08,
Strealing money from a HUGE company is stealing a little bit of money from everyone. Do you think the NYTimes just picks money off of trees to make up for their losses? They charge everyone who reads their paper more. And by the way, "there are worse things," there are not "worst things." "

bigphish wrote on Aug 6, 2008 11:52 AM:

" I think it is hilarious that the NY Times is the paper in question. The paper is completely bias and a rag anyways! I guess one great thing about the paper is that it comes in quite handy when the wife forgets the toilet paper! "

Little Lady wrote on Aug 6, 2008 11:49 AM:

" I was one of the residents who was receiving invoices, and to anyone who thinks that this was no big deal, maybe your own threat of Identity Theft would change your mind. I spent a lot of time trying to get through to the Times trying to notify them of the error. Nonetheless, I was ignored multiple times. I'm comforted to know that this situation has finally been brought out and will be resolved. "

12citrus08 wrote on Aug 6, 2008 11:06 AM:

" I dont even feel what he did is such a big deal. Maybe if you took money from all these fake subscribers then, maybe i would be a little bit more upset. Yeah he got alot of money from a HUGE company but there are worst things in the world then getting a little money hungry now isnt there?! "

ad4mj9381 wrote on Aug 6, 2008 9:10 AM:

" where i work was used as one of the fake address' one day we had 17 bills come in the mail to rediculous names, that sounded like they were made up by an elementary student lol. but we never got a paper, but we did in total send back over 60 false billing statements... "

nana3 wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:57 AM:

" re:002

It's The New York Times, why would they be suspicious of having several subscribers at the same address.

Some people live in 1 room or 2-3 tiny rooms in New York. "

002 wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:31 AM:

" Wouldn't the newspaper have some sort of alert that 5 newspapers are all going to the same address? They were probably happy to get the subscriptions. "


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