View Linkedin profile at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/randall-yates/51/133/942?trk=pub-pbmap
Garland men sentenced to prison for eBay fraud
Dallas Business Journal
Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2004, 4:00pm CDT - Last Modified: Tuesday, August 24, 2004, 4:04pm CDT
Two 22-year-old Garland men have been sentenced to federal prison for defrauding buyers on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), the Internet auction service, the United States Attorney's office in Dallas said Tuesday.
Randy Gail Abbe Jr. and Randall James Yates both pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in United States District Court. U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey sentenced Abbe, who was convicted earlier this month, to 18 months in prison. Yates, who was convicted earlier, was sentenced in January to one year and one day in prison. Both defendants were ordered to pay $31,360.78 in restitution.
Abbe and Yates admitted that between September 2002 and January 2003 they used Yates' computer to advertise non-existent items for sale on eBay. They used Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) e-mail accounts in false names to communicate with potential buyers. Abbe admitted that he picked up payments from buyers at Western Union or Moneygram locations and split the money with Yates.
Both men also communicated with potential buyers on a prepaid cell phone to describe the items for sale or to arrange for the wire transer of money, never intending to deliver anything, the authorities said.
For example, In September 2002, Yates spoke with a man who wanted to buy an Acura turbo kit the pair had advertised on eBay for $2,395. Yates and Abbe, pretending to be other people, discussed the turbo kit with the buyer and directed him to wire transfer the money by Moneygram to a fake name at a fake address. Abbe and Yates, who never had a turbo kit to sell, collected the money.
U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its work on the case, as well as the Plano, Richardson and Garland police departments.
Read about his other 2 Felony convictions of Theft of 1500.00 at:
http://www.dallascounty.org/criminalBackgroundSearch/search.do
And thats not all! There are other employee's/associates with criminal records (including the owners), so BEWARE and think twice.