Youngstown Man Charged with Wire Fraud

A one-count information was filed charging Jonathon M. Tepper, age 21, of Youngstown, Ohio, with wire fraud, Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced today.

The information charges that from on or about June 23, 2007, through on or about January 4, 2009, Jonathon M. Tepper devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money and property by false means.

“This defendant is accused of running a scheme that defrauded a company out of $235,000,” Dettelbach said. “This is fraud on a major scale.”

Tepper called Asurion, Inc., a company that provides replacement cellular telephones to people who buy insurance through their cellular telephone service provider. In so doing, Tepper posed as a legitimate subscriber to cellular service and fraudulently claimed that a phone had been lost or stolen. Tepper then requested a replacement phone from Asurion. Based upon Tepper’s fraudulent representations, Asurion sent hundreds of phones, worth approximately $235,220.69, from a facility in Smyrna, Tennessee, to addresses located within the Northern District of Ohio.

Once he obtained the phones, Tepper used the Internet to sell the telephones obtained from Asurion. Specifically, Tepper used eBay, an Internet-based public auction site. He posted pictures and descriptions of the telephones he had for sale that were transmitted by wire through interstate commerce. At no time did Tepper represent that these telephones had been obtained through fraudulent means.

When a person decided to buy one of these telephones, they transmitted a payment by wire to PayPal, an Internet-based account managing service located in the state of California. PayPal then transmitted the funds by wire from computer servers located outside of the State of Ohio to bank accounts maintained in the Northern District of Ohio that were owned by Tepper. Tepper obtained approximately $235,220.69.

If convicted, the defendant's sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violations. In all cases, the sentences will not exceed the statutory maximum and, in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David M. Toepfer.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.