‘Boldness is perhaps a shorthand’: Prisoner made a multi-million dollar scam from cell pretending to be an AbbVie employee
A Georgia inmate has been sentenced to seven more years for running a multi-million dollar heavy equipment scam from behind bars where he used a pirated cell phone to act as a buying agent. for the pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc.
Damon Thomas Young, 39, was about to serve half a 20-year sentence for assaulting a police officer when he launched a plan in 2019 to buy heavy machinery from dealers on the premise that that AbbVie is planning to build a manufacturing facility in rural Georgia.
“Calling this far-reaching fraud scheme brazen is perhaps an understatement,” federal prosecutors wrote in the court filing.
Proceeds
When the equipment, which was purchased with borrowed money, was moved to properties owned by the Young family near Ranger, Ga., prosecutors said.
Collectively, Young — using the alias Morgan Sylvia — ordered $2.8 million worth of equipment, including wheel loaders, wheel loaders, loaders, horizontal grinders and trucks, from six agents. prosecutors in Georgia and North Carolina, prosecutors said.
While many orders were stopped before they were completed, four devices worth about $500,000 were delivered and then sold to others. Authorities said all of them were recovered and returned.
In some of the orders, Young forged the signatures of CFO AbbVie and other company officials. A representative for AbbVie did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Young pleaded guilty to phone fraud and aggravated identity theft in August. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to an additional seven years in prison, five of which must be served after he his current prison term is due in 2030.
A message left with Young’s attorney was not immediately returned.
Young was sentenced to 20 years in a Georgia state prison in 2010 for fraud and assaulting a police officer. He also has prior convictions for theft, impersonating a public official, arson, forgery and burglary, according to court records.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/brazen-is-probably-an-understatement-georgia-inmate-ran-multi-million-dollar-scam-from-prison-cell-posing-as-abbvie-employee-11638394803?rss=1&siteid=rss ‘Boldness is perhaps a shorthand’: Prisoner made a multi-million dollar scam from cell pretending to be an AbbVie employee
