Third Defendant in Amazon Fraud Scheme Sentenced to Prison

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that KENOY STEWART, 27, of Bridgeport, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to nine months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for defrauding Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”).

According to court documents and statements made in court, Stewart 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, Stewart 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 Stewart a series of refunds for the purportedly lost merchandise.

Through this scheme, Stewart defrauded Amazon of $1,063.762.82.  Judge Thompson ordered him to pay full restitution.

On February 10, 2022, Stewart, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.  Stewart, who is released on a $50,000 bond, is required to report to prison on October 30.

Two other individuals involved in this scheme pleaded guilty to the same charge.  On September 5, 2023, Stewart’s brother, Oshane Stewart, who defrauded Amazon of approximately $742,000, was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment.  On September 27, 2023, Rajhni Yankana, who defrauded Amazon of approximately $210,000, was sentenced to five months of imprisonment and five months of home detention.

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