Swainsboro man pleads guilty to fencing millions in stolen property on eBay
A Swainsboro man who ran an online store on the Internet auction site eBay pleaded guilty today in federal court in Atlanta to using his online business to fence more than $9 million worth of stolen property, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia announced today.
Robert A. Hill, 51, worked with a ring of identity thieves who purchased merchandise on credit at large retail store using the stolen identities of multiple Georgia victims, said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.
?This case demonstrates that damage can be done by criminals who combine identity theft with the power of the Internet to reach beyond state lines,? Yates said. Hill, she said, ?worked with identity thieves who used fake driver?s licenses to get store credit and buy expensive items.
He then resold the items from his eBay store to buyers from across the United States, all the while pretending to run an honest business. His crimes leave a wake of individual victims whose good names and credit were abused, in addition to numerous retail victims who suffered millions in lost sales from the scheme.?
According to the U.S. attorney, Hill ran his scheme for more than a decade via his online eBay store, atlantis_discount_warehouse_llc.
He worked with thieves who supplied him with expensive merchandise such as iPads, iPods, iPhones, computers, Wii game systems, cameras, golf clubs and tools from large retailers such as Best Buy, Sam?s Club, Home Depot, Lowe?s, Walmart, Target and Dick?s Sporting Goods, federal prosecutors said.
The thieves used fake driver?s licenses and stolen identities to apply for new credit cards or take over existing accounts at the stores, prosecutors said. Hill then bought the items from ring members for about 60 percent of their retail value and, on occasion, gave them order lists of items he wished to acquire and then sell online, prosecutors said.
Hill pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of stolen property, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years and fines as high as $250,000. The federal charges also require him to forfeit nearly $100,000 in cash, a 13-year-old Lexus and thousands of dollars in electronics equipment and jewelry, prosecutors said.
He is scheduled to be sentenced March 14 before U.S. District Judge Richard Story.
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