Tessa M. Gorman, U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington
A man from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for his involvement in a fraudulent online shopping refund scheme. Leonardo Vidal, aged 29, was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering, as announced by U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Following his prison term, Vidal will be under three years of supervised release as ordered by U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik.
"Those running these refunding schemes induced others to essentially steal and cheat while claiming there would be no consequences," stated U.S. Attorney Gorman. "These prison sentences are appropriate for the damage done to retailers and to our community in promoting these illegal schemes."
Vidal operated a fraudulent scheme named Ressu Refunds from June 2021 until April 2023, amassing around 2,800 subscribers and generating $6 million in fake refunds. Starting in June 2022, he collaborated with Sajed Al-Maarej from Dearborn, Michigan, who ran another site called Simple Refunds using Telegram messaging service.
Al-Maarej received a three-year prison sentence in December 2024.
The fraudulent operations promised purchasers they could retain high-value goods while falsely claiming refunds from merchants. Customers provided purchase details to Al-Maarej and Vidal who then made false claims about the orders' status to secure refunds from retailers.
Both men enlisted insiders at UPS and the US Postal Service to input false tracking information suggesting items were lost or returned during shipping. Purchasers kept the products and paid Al-Maarej or Vidal a fee ranging between 10-15% of the purchase price.
In December 2022, Vidal acquired Simple Refunds from Al-Maarej before selling both refund schemes in April 2023. He later engaged in another illegal venture by purchasing refunded items for resale. When confronted by law enforcement, Vidal led investigators to storage locations containing stolen goods including Dewalt Drills and Coway Airmega Air Purifiers.
During an eight-month period with Ressu Refunds under his operation, over 3,000 fraudulent refunds worth at least $5.3 million were processed.
The total value of fraudulent activities through Simple Refunds and Ressu Refunds while managed by Vidal amounted to $6,067,168; he agreed to pay restitution equal to this amount.
At sentencing, Vidal expressed remorse stating: "I want to thank the FBI because I was going down a very dark path…. I was not a bad person but I knew it was wrong."
The investigation is being conducted by the FBI along with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), with prosecution led by Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Watts Staniar.
