Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Fairlawn, Ohio, was sentenced in connection with his recent wire fraud conviction in connection with an e-Bay Internet auction scam conducted in 2000 and 2001. U.S. District Judge James Gwin sentenced Deceuster to 5 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, the first 5 months of which will be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring. Deceuster was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $60,139.00 to the victims of the offense, and a $200 special assessment to the Crime Victims' Fund.
On November 23, a federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, returned a nineteen-count indictment charging Deceuster with twelve counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and seven counts of mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C., §1341. On January 3, Deceuster pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud.
The indictment charged that between on or about November 9, and on or about September 4, Deceuster knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud victims, and obtain money by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, in connection with various items, including Sony laptop computers, Sony Playstation 2 games, and a plasma screen television which Deceuster advertised for sale on the Internet
Auction site, e-Bay, using the seller name "TM72900." Deceuster advertised said items for sale, instructed the victims to send payment via the U.S. Mail or via PayPal, an Internet payment system. Despite receiving payments from the victims totaling $60,139.00 for said items, Deceuster failed to send any merchandise to the bidders.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern, following an investigation by the Canton Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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