Defendant Sentenced to 34 Months Imprisonment for Conspiracy to Transport Merchandise Taken by Fraud in Interstate Commerce

A federal judge today sentenced Edward Marcelli, age 32, a resident of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to 34 months in federal prison for Conspiracy to Transport Merchandise Taken by Fraud in Interstate Commerce. Marcellipleaded guilty to that offense, admitting that between April 2004 and April 2005 he solicited three other individuals to open bank accounts, and then used checks written on those accounts to purchase merchandise even though he knew that there were insufficient funds in the accounts to cover the checks.

United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentence, which Judge William E. Smithimposed today in U.S. District Court, Providence. In addition to the term of imprisonment, the judge ordered that following his sentence the defendant be placed on supervised release for 3 years, and that he pay restitution in the amount of $283,033.45.

At the plea hearing on December 1, 2008, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Reichsaid the government could prove that in 2004 the defendant spoke to three individuals about how they could make money by obtaining merchandise for Marcelli by writing bad checks to retail stores. After these individuals agreed to engage in the scheme, the defendant assisted these individuals in obtaining identification documents which incorrectly listed their places of residence. After obtaining these false identification documents, the defendant accompanied these individuals to different financial institutions, and assisted them in establishing checking accounts in their names.

After establishing the checking accounts, the defendant accompanied these individuals to various retails stores located in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. At each store, the defendant determined what merchandise was to be purchased. At the direction of the defendant, these individuals paid for the merchandise that was selected by the defendant by writing checks from the accounts they had established. At the time the checks were written to the retail stores, the defendant knew that there were insufficient funds in the checking accounts to cover the amounts of the checks. After the merchandise was obtained from the retails stores, the merchandise was retained by the defendant.

In addition to causing checking accounts to be established in the names of other individuals, the defendant also established checking accounts in his own name. After establishing his checking accounts, the defendant obtained merchandise from various retail stores located in Massachusetts and Connecticut by writing checks from his bank accounts.  At the time the checks were written to the retail stores, there were insufficient funds in the checking accounts to cover the amounts of the checks.

As a results of the bad checks that were written to retails store, these stores suffered a total loss of approximately $283,033.45.

Marcelli was ordered to report to prison by June 8, 2009.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.