3 men plead guilty in sale of stolen goods on eBay
Three friends face the possibility of serious prison time after pleading guilty yesterday in connection with a scheme to sell stolen merchandise on eBay.
Three friends face the possibility of serious prison time after pleading guilty yesterday in connection with a scheme to sell stolen merchandise on eBay.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick set sentencing for February. Under preliminary advisory-sentencing guidelines, the three defendants, all of whom pleaded guilty in federal district court to wire and mail fraud, could potentially face 41 to 51 months in a federal lockup.
Authorities said Evan Appel, 34, of Northeast Philadelphia; Nathan Allen Kriegler, 43, of Holland, Bucks County; and Ryan Pollack, 34, of Abington, Montgomery County, conducted fraudulent transactions with 19 retailers from March 2008 to January 2010 using shell companies.
Before their criminal misdeeds, the three men used each other as references to obtain business credit, sources said.
The government's plea memo said Appel, Kriegler and Pollack obtained the merchandise - including laptops, printers, scanners, televisions, industrial printing equipment and other office supplies and electronics - by providing bogus payment information to retailers.
The merchandise was then shipped by the various retailers to addresses owned or controlled by the defendants. Appel, Kriegler and Pollack subsequently listed the items for sale on eBay under various names, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the men did not reveal to potential buyers that the items had been stolen.
The men then sold and shipped the stolen goods to buyers throughout the U.S. and received payment for them via PayPal, the government said. All told, Appel, Kriegler and Pollack fraudulently obtained more than $546,000 in merchandise, authorities said.
Kriegler also pleaded guilty to theft of government property and wire fraud for passing 30 bad checks to post offices in exchange for more than $80,000 worth of postage stamps, which he later sold on eBay.
In addition, he pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a check-kiting scheme, and to bank and wire fraud for bilking two financial institutions of almost $495,000 in connection with a mortgage loan and a home-equity line of credit.
