A former Florida resident was sentenced to 60 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a special assessment in the amount of $3,000, and restitution in the amount of $476,195.51 by U.S. District Court Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, for orchestrating an international stock fraud scheme.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Ronald J. Verrochio, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami Division, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and Alysa Erichs, Special Agent in Charge U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), made the announcement.

Amy Brook Wilkerson, 22, formerly from Orlando, Florida, was charged by information with twenty-nine counts of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343 and one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1). Wilkerson pled guilty to the 30 count information on January 12, 2015.

According to court documents, Wilkerson, while living in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey and later in Tbilisi, Georgia, purchased a list containing contact information for stock market investors. Wilkerson then referred to this list in order to recruit potential clients. Using an alias and falsely claiming to be a high ranking officer and stock broker for a well-known international bank, Wilkerson contacted a number of individuals who were living in the United States. Wilkerson represented to the potential clients that she had access to various initial purchase offerings (IPOS) that would be very profitable. Based on Wilkerson’s fraudulent representations, twenty-three individuals wired a total of $805,996 to various bank accounts controlled by Wilkerson. Following her arrest, the defendant admitted that she in fact never had access to any IPOS, that her entire operation was fraudulent, that she never purchased any stocks as represented to the victims, and that she used the monies wired by the victims to cover her personal expenses.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the USPIS, FBI, ICE-HSI and the United States Department of Justice Office of International Affairs (OIA). The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Lanigan.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.