Amazon fraudsters sentenced to almost six years in jail

Three people who stole $1.2 million in consumer electronics from Amazon via an elaborate returns scheme have received hefty prison sentences.

Husband and wife, Erin Finan and Leah Finan, pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and money laundering charges, and were sentenced to 71 months and 68 months in prison respectively. Danijel Glumac pleaded guilty to money laundering and to fencing the items the Finans stole and got 24 months in jail.

Between 2014 and 2016, the Finans and Glumac stole and sold over 2,700 consumer electronics items such as GoPro digital cameras, Microsoft Xboxes, Samsung smartwatches, Microsoft Surface tablets and Apple Macbooks. They exploited Amazon’s customer service policy by repeatedly falsely claiming that the electronics they ordered were damaged or not working, and then requesting and receiving replacements from the e-commerce giant at no charge. They created hundreds of false identities, retrieving their stolen goods from retail shipping stores all over Indiana, and selling them to Glumac, on a near-daily basis. In just over two years, they made roughly $750,000 from their scheme. 

On top of that, they bounced cheques, rented cars but didn't paid for them and rented houses but, ah, you can guess the rest. They also committed another online fraud involving stealing high-end rental softball equipment and selling it on Facebook groups. “Consumer fraud not only unjustly enriches the perpetrator, it causes all of us to pay higher retail prices,” said United States Attorney Josh Minkler. “To those who seek to exploit the convenience of online shopping through fraud, remember this case. You will be caught. You will be prosecuted. And you will go to federal prison for a long time.”

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