‘Fraud on a major scale’: City man accused in $235K scheme

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A city man faces federal charges alleging wire fraud in excess of $235,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Ohio has filed a one-count information charging Jonathon M. Tepper, 21.

“This is fraud on a major scale,” U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach said.

The information charges that from June 23, 2007, through about Jan. 4, 2009, Tepper devised a scheme to obtain cell phones and then sell them on eBay.

According to the indictment, Tepper called Asurion Inc., a company that provides replacement cellular telephones to people who buy insurance through their cell-phone service provider.

Tepper posed as a legitimate subscriber to cellular service and fraudulently claimed a phone had been lost or stolen, according to the indictment. Tepper then requested a replacement phone from the company.

Based upon Tepper’s fraudulent representations, Asurion sent hundreds of phones, worth about $235,220.69, from a facility in Smyrna, Tenn.

Once Tepper obtained the phones, he used the Internet to sell them. Specifically, Tepper used eBay, the 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, a violation of federal laws. At no time did Tepper represent that these telephones had been fraudulently obtained, Dettelbach said in a press release.

When a person decided to buy one of the phones, they transmitted a payment by wire to PayPal, an Internet-based account-managing service in California.

PayPal then transmitted the funds by wire from computer servers located outside Ohio to bank accounts maintained and owned by Tepper, according to the indictment.

Tepper obtained more than $235,000.

The FBI conducted the investigation that led to the indictment. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer.