For some reason, as often as I report on white collar crime, I always seem to find myself amazed at where the crime originates from. In this case, the Allen based company that provides telephone and internet services – Sage Telecom – found itself the losing end of a white collar crime scam.
Seems that William Chad Mercer – also known as Bryson Mercer – between March 2004 through November 2005, submitted false invoices to Sage Telecom representing that temporary employment services totaling $5,130,407.48 had been provided when they had not. Mr. Mercer wrote invoices for temporary employment and other employee services. He was authorized to approve payments for the company and made payments to a fake companies he created.
A federal indictment charging Mercer with 10 counts of mail fraud was returned by a federal grand jury on May 10, 2007. Mercer remained a fugitive until he was arrested in August 2007.
Mercer, age 36, from Plano, Texas was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for mail fraud violations and was also ordered to pay over $2.4 million in restitution and to forfeit almost $2.7 million.
Every choice has a consequence. As a white collar crime and business ethics speaker, I speak from first hand experience about the truth about consequences. Reality is – no one escapes the consequences of their choices. While Mercer avoided the consequences for a time – he did not avoid the consequences all together. Prison is no fun and will prove to be a dramatic change from his prior activities. You do reap what you sow.
If anyone reading has any background on Mercer – feel free to comment as I study the behaviors and backgrounds of those convicted of white collar crime.
White Collar Crime Speaker – Chuck Gallagher – signing off…
Motivational Speaker - Chuck Gallagher Business Ethics and Choices Expert 
I worked with Bryson at Sage for five years. He was quiet, but also stern. Everyone made a habit of avoiding him and trying to stay on his good side. He could be vengeful in certain ways, and though he was very strict about certain policies such as sexual harrassment issues, he also handled some things underhandedly. Of course, who do you report that type of thing to when it’s an issue stemming from Human Resources? Sage was a wonderful company to work for and we were valued and appreciated as employees, but as an individual, Bryson was definitely one of those people you didn’t cross.
I worked with Bryson at Sage Telecom 1998-2001 as a supervisor in operations department and am just now reading that he was imprisoned for fraud. This really does not surprise me at all. As I have a masters degree in Graphology and his handwriting had capabilities of embezzlement and con artist. This story just confirmed what I saw years ago. I did not like his personality even before I had the pleasure of seeing his handwriting. But I am also thankful I had the insight to just stay away from him while I was employed.
I knew Bryson when we lived in Atlanta just prior to being arrested (do you have any details on his arrest??). He told me and our circle of friends that he was an attorney. He was never able to explain why he always had large sums of cash and never seemed to work. There’s a lot more to this story, but that’s as much as I’m willing to share right now.
I had the “pleasure” of meeting Bryson Mercer in Dec of 1999 after many, many, many messages left on his voicemail concerning employment. I think he was throw for a loop when we finally met b/c the look on his face told me he was expecting someone very different!! I was hired on-the-spot and quickly “climbed the corprate ladder”. Bryson spent a lot of time in and around my depatrment. He had a chilling look that most people would feel down to their bones!! He also gave off the impression that it was HIS company, and what he said goes. As mentioned before he was the one person in the company that you did not want against you, as I witnessed first hand the firing of some employees before their training ended!! I have more to share because I worked directly w/him on enforcing policy and procedure. Mr. Gallagher I would love to share more of this story with you. If interestd, please email me. I was employeed with Sage Telecom from Dec 1999 to Sept 2003 and my “exit” from the company shocked most!
I worked for Sage Telecom during the entire tenure of Bryson Mercer. Much of that time he was my boss. I was the Senior Trainer for Sage. He did indeed act like Sage was his company, talked much about his hobnobing the with the CEO and CFO. It was his way of saying, “don’t mess with me”. He bragged about his homes, entertainment center, cars etc. He said he had real estate investments. I found it telling in how much time Aaron Wolske spent in Bryson’s closed door office. I felt that there was defintely something up there. When their relationship came to light, no one was surprised. Bryson wanted folks to fear him, and therefore not question him. I often wondered how Sage staff could recruit, interview, do the paperwork, hire, and then turn the individual over to a temp agency that was only a website. The temp agency owner would interupt my class often to tell students that they would be handled by her. I complained but was silenced by veiled threats from Bryson. I loved Sage Telecom soooo much. Our CEO Denny was a saint. Bryson could not spend enough time in prison for my liking.
This is all shocking but you what they say about hindsight. How could we suspect when the majority wouldn’t even dream up these schemes. Now I realize he had to have co-conspirators and my instincts always told me that the agency he used with Cynthia was also shady. I never trusted her at all and they were very close.