Man ordered to federal prison for fraud, ID theft
A Farmington Hills man has been ordered to spend 75 months in federal prison and pay restitution of $774,607 for a fraud and identity theft scheme that targeted pandemic relief funds and other financial sources.
Andre Taylor, Jr., 28, was handed the sentence May 9. He pleaded guilty last December to one count of wire fraud involving the Unemployment Insurance Agencies of several states as well as numerous retailers and banks, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. He also pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft for misusing personal identity information of individual victims.
“This defendant indiscriminately stole from pandemic relief programs, from banks and from the public,” United States Attorney Dawn Isom stated in the news release. “He took money from wherever it was available, and he did not care whom he harmed along the way. Mr. Taylor’s conviction and sentence is a reflection of my office’s commitment to aggressive prosecution of those who steal identities to defraud both public and private victims.”
Court documents show that Taylor began obtaining credit cards intended for others and used them without the cardholders’ authorization, beginning in or around October 2019. The cards were obtained by paying bribes to postal workers for credit cards and other access devices stolen from mail routes. Taylor used the cards to buy prepaid gift cards in bulk and other items from various retailers in Michigan and other states.
According to the news release, the scheme was expanded, beginning approximately in March 2020, when Taylor started obtaining pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits not meant for him. That evolved into him seeking benefits “through a variety of mechanisms and practices.” He obtained personal identifying information and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with workforce agencies in Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and in some cases would direct the benefits be electronically loaded into accounts he controlled or onto bank cards.
Taylor would also have debit cards pre-loaded with the unemployment insurance benefits and mailed to addresses which he had access to, the news release stated. Frequently, he’d have the cards mailed to addresses along routes of letter carriers who were complicit with his scheme. The letter carriers would then intercept the cards for Taylor, the news release stated.