Shelton man sentenced for defrauding Amazon

Shelton resident Oshane Stewart was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for defrauding Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

According to the charges brought against him, Stewart created multiple vendor accounts with Amazon for the sale of merchandise through the website on a third-party basis. He often opened the accounts using false names, email addresses and other identifying information.

After setting up the accounts, Stewart represented to Amazon that he was shipping it valuable merchandise to be held for sale by the company. However, he did not ship any of the merchandise and used fabricated documents to falsely claim the items had been lost. Amazon sent Stewart a series of refunds for the purportedly lost merchandise totaling about $742,000.

Stewart pleaded guilty last November to one count of wire fraud. He was also ordered by the court to pay full restitution for this scam. He is currently released on bond and is required to report to prison on Dec. 5.

Two other individuals have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with this scheme ”“Stewart”™s brother Kenoy Stewart pleaded guilty in February and admitted that his conduct resulted in a loss to Amazon exceeding $1 million while Rajhni Yankana pleaded guilty last month. Both currently await sentencing.