Bridgeport Man Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding Amazon

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that RAJHNI YANKANA, 28, of Bridgeport, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to five months of imprisonment, followed five months of home detention and three years of supervised release, for defrauding Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”).

According to court documents and statements made in court, Yankana created multiple vendor accounts with Amazon allowing him to sell merchandise through the website on a third-party basis.  He often opened the accounts using false names, email addresses and other identifying information.  After setting up the accounts, Yankana represented to Amazon that he was shipping it valuable merchandise to be held for sale by the company.  In reality, he would not ship the merchandise, and would later falsely claim that it had been lost, supporting his false claims with fabricated documents.  Amazon sent Yankana a series of refunds for the purportedly lost merchandise.

Through this scheme, Yankana defrauded Amazon of  $210,836.97.  Judge Thompson ordered him to pay full restitution.

On August 26, 2022, Yankana pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.  Yankana, who is released on a $50,000 bond, is required to report to prison on October 27.

Two other individuals involved in this scheme pleaded guilty to the same charge.  On September 5, 2023, Oshane Stewart who defrauded Amazon of approximately $742,000, was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment.  Stewart’s brother, Kenoy Stewart, who defrauded Amazon of more than $1 million, is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow.

This matter has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from Amazon.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Conor M. Reardon and Christopher W. Schmeisser.