DETROIT (WWJ) - The final defendant in a multi-million dollar cell phone upgrade fraud scheme received a prison sentence and must pay millions to defrauded company.
32-year-old Donnell Taylor, of Detroit, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday, Acting United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Michigan, Julie Beck announced.
In addition to the jail sentence, Taylor was ordered to pay AT&T $4,738,059.34 in restitution and forfeited $844,981 in proceeds.
“This sentencing concludes the successful, multi-year investigation and prosecution of the self-styled ‘Clear Gods,’” Beck said. “These defendants orchestrated a significant fraud scheme and are now facing appropriately significant sentences. I want to thank our law enforcement partners for all their work on this case, and I look forward to continuing to work with them to keep our district safe.”
Authorities say a group, including Taylor, “engaged in an ongoing scheme to defraud, using the personally identifiable information (PII) of other people to acquire significant numbers of Apple-branded cellular devices on credit, by charging those devices to accounts opened in the names of ID-theft victims, without the victims’ authorization.” The scheme began as early as June 2017 and continued through at least September 2019.
The scheme involved more than 26,000 fraudulent transactions in total, resulting in a loss of more than $28,000,000.
Taylor was personally connected to approximately $4.7 million of the total, authorities said.
“Taylor’s sentence also held him responsible as an ‘organizer or leader,’ for directing the strong-arm kidnappings of three individuals affiliated with the victim-company in the spring of 2018,” the press release about his sentence said.
“Thanks to the hard work of our special agents and law enforcement partners, this criminal organization’s scheme is brought to a just end,” ICE HSI Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey said. “Our team stands ready to investigate other fraudulent schemes that would seek to exploit and harm everyday Americans.”
Six other people were previously sentenced for their roles. Emmanuel Luter, 34, of Lennox, Georgia, was sentenced to a combined 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. 33-year-old Joseph Ingram, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to a combined 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Dominique Barnes, 35, of Southfield, was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 35-year-old Delano Bush, also of Southfield, was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Dalontae Davis, 33, of Sachse, Texas, was sentenced to 4 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 35-year-old Joshua Motley, of Detroit, was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The investigation was conducted by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Detroit Metro Airport Office, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, the Detroit Metro Airport Police Department, the Taylor Police Department and the Wayne State University Police Department.