Friday, April 23, 2010

Man Who Defrauded Home Depot Sentenced to Prison

April 23, 2010 - A resident of Detroit was sentenced yesterday to 28 months' imprisonment on a conviction for access device (credit card) fraud based on his scheme to defraud Home Depot, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

Receiving the sentence from U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan was Samuel Walker, 39, who pleaded guilty to one count of access device fraud in December 2009. The investigation established that Walker purchased the account numbers of numerous Home Depot credit card holders and used them, over the course of 12 months, to obtain gift cards and merchandise at Home Depot stores in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. The value of the gift cards and merchandise exceeded $150,000.

There was no evidence that any Home Depot employee participated in the scheme. Nor did any Home Depot credit cardholder sustain any loss, which was borne entirely by Home Depot.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Duggan noted that Walker committed the offense while he was on probation for a state conviction for credit card fraud. Judge Duggan also ordered Walker to serve a two-year term of supervised release following his release from prison and pay $154,204.27 in restitution to Home Depot.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with the assistance of the Home Depot loss prevention department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen L. Hiyama.

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