ALBUQUERQUE - Amir Meir Levi, 38, of Canoga Park, Calif., was sentenced this morning to 21 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain high-value cellular phones from retail stores in California, Arizona and New Mexico and to resell the cellular phones for profit.
Levi and his three co-defendants, Joshua Ferdman, 35, Jeffrey Contella, 30, and Joseph Cohen, 28, all of Los Angeles, Calif., were indicted in Feb. 2012, and charged with conspiracy to transport stolen property and commit access device fraud, and access device fraud. Contella, Cohen and Levi each entered guilty pleas to the indictment without the benefit of plea agreements in Jan. 2013. Ferdman entered a similar guilty plea in Feb. 2013.
In entering their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that, in May 2011, they engaged in a scheme to fraudulently obtain high-value cellphones, including smartphones, from Sprint stores, and resell the cellphones in a Van Nuys, Calif., store owned by Cohen and through an on-line store hosted by EBay. The defendants traveled to Sprint stores throughout California, Arizona and New Mexico and fraudulently obtained significant quantities of cellphones by impersonating Sprint customers and the unauthorized use of the customers’ account numbers. They obtained the phones free of cost by instructing store clerks to bill the cost of the phones to the accounts of the unwitting Sprint customers.
According to court filings, from May 10, 2011 through May 16, 2011, Ferdman and Levi traveled to Sprint stores in California, including stores in Fullerton, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Sacramento and Folsom, to perpetuate their fraudulent scheme. From May 21, 2011 to May 24, 2011, Ferdman and Contella traveled to Sprint stores in Arizona and New Mexico for that same purpose. During this period, Levi wired cash to Ferdman and Contella; Ferdman sent cellphones to Levi via Federal Express; Levi delivered the cellphones to Cohen; and Cohen sold the cellphones. On May 25, 2011, Ferdman, Contella and Levi fraudulently obtained 13 smartphones from a Sprint store in Albuquerque through the unauthorized use of a Sprint customer’s account number. That same day, Ferdman, Contella and Levi attempted to purchase an additional six smartphones from a Sprint store in Albuquerque.
Contella was sentenced on Sept. 13, 2014, to two years of probation and was ordered to pay $21,777.00 in restitution in restitution to the victims of his criminal activity. Ferdman was sentenced on Nov. 8, 2013, to 15 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Cohen was sentenced on May 6, 2014, to three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $17,090.13 fine. Ferdman and Cohen also were ordered to pay, jointly with their co-defendants, $45,715.59 in restitution to the victims of the criminal scheme.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Albuquerque Police Department’s Organized Crime Unit, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean J. Sullivan and Stephen R. Kotz.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
