Purported Rap Promoter Pleads Guilty to Role in $2.3M
Nationwide Fraud Conspiracy
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An
According to court documents, between at least March 2016
and September 2020, Antonio M. Strong, 31, of Lansing, Illinois, conspired with
Herbert Wright, Joseph Williams, Demario Sorrells, and others to defraud
numerous businesses and individuals by using unauthorized and stolen payment
card account information to obtain valuable goods and services from those
businesses and individuals, including private jet charters, private yacht
charters, luxury car rentals, luxury hotel and vacation rental accommodations,
private chef and security guard services, designer puppies, limousine and
chauffeur services, commercial airline flights, consumer goods, meals, and
other incidentals. The actual cardholders discovered these transactions on
their accounts and disputed the charges. The actual cardholders’ payment card
companies then reversed their payments and charged back the transactions to the
businesses and individuals, which consequently suffered losses in the amounts
of the unauthorized transactions.
During this time, Strong presented himself as a rap promoter
based in the
Strong pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit
wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on
Sept. 19 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count. A
federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
Wright, Williams, and Sorrells have all pleaded guilty to
one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Wright was sentenced on Jan. 11
to three years of probation and was ordered to pay $139,968 in both restitution
and forfeiture. Williams is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, and Sorrells
is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 29. Two other co-conspirators were
indicted in October 2020 and their trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 21.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M.
Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S.
Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts; and Special Agent in
Charge Andrew Murphy of the U.S. Secret Service Boston Field Office made the
announcement.
The
Trial Attorneys Andrew Tyler and Kyle Crawford of the
Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow
for the District of Massachusetts are prosecuting the case.
Updated