Seller sentenced to one and a half years in prison for defrauding Amazon of $740,000

Recently, Vanessa Roberts Avery, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, announced at a press conference that a 31-year-old man from Shelton was sentenced to 18 years in prison by a Hartford District Judge for defrauding Amazon.

The man, Oshane Stewart, created multiple accounts in Amazon's online store as a seller using false identity information such as name, email, and address, according to court documents. After successfully creating these accounts, Oshane Stewart applied to join the FBA service, claiming that he had sent expensive goods to Amazon warehouses and that Amazon would ship them on his behalf.

In fact, these goods were not really sent out. However, Oshane Stewart contacted Amazon, saying that the goods he sent to the warehouse were lost, and forged a series of false documents to prove his statement. In this way, Oshane Stewart defrauded Amazon of $742,231.16.

According to Vanessa Roberts Avery, Oshane Stewart pleaded guilty to the crime in November last year and was later released on bail. The court required him to report to prison before December 5. In addition to imprisonment, the court also sentenced him to three years of supervised release and required him to return all the stolen money from defrauding Amazon.

In addition to Oshane Stewart, two other people have pleaded guilty to similar crimes. One of them is Oshane Stewart's brother, Kenoy Stewart, who pleaded guilty in February last year and admitted that his actions caused Amazon more than $1 million in losses; the other is Rajhni Yankana, who pleaded guilty in August last year. Currently, both are awaiting sentencing in court.

In addition to "sellers" who claim that their goods are lost , there are also buyers who deliberately return the "wrong" goods. Recently, a buyer named Wail Chouder was also arrested for fraud on Amazon.

According to reports, Wail Chouder made 27 fraudulent returns to Amazon between May 2019 and May 2022. He first purchased some expensive goods such as electronics, sporting goods, and luxury glasses on the platform, and then initiated returns for various reasons after receiving the goods, but what was sent back was no longer the original goods, but cheaper items. Currently, Chouder is being held in Orange County Jail awaiting sentencing.

It is reported that according to US law, wire fraud can be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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