entrepreneur, Rossoni would soon concoct a brilliant cash-making scheme
on
The former resident of Sunny Isles, Fla., “sold”
everything from airline tickets to DVD collections to rotisserie grills
on the Internet auction site. But in reality, it was all a scam. He
never shipped a thing to thousands of winning bidders who had paid him.
The illegal take: about
Rossoni, 50, was sentenced in
federal court Tuesday to 5 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to
mail-fraud conspiracy. He had gained a national reputation among
authorities as
His son,
Here’s how the elaborate scam worked:
From 2003 to 2008,
Then he set up hundreds of
He used prepaid credit cards, which required no identification, to buy 15 to 20 inexpensive items on
from themselves and posted positive “feedback” on the transactions. The
purpose: To gain an online reputation as legitimate sellers for
potential buyers.
Rossoni posted various items — computer flash
drives, sporting equipment, designer luggage, appliances — for 24 hours
at a time, according to the indictment.
After each auction, he notified the winning bidders
via e-mail to send their payments as a check or money order made
payable to one of four alias names or to a purported
As the enterprise flourished, Rossoni rented at
least 59 private mail boxes, using fabricated Brazilian passports with
aliases, according to the indictment.
After he received the payments, Rossoni deposited the money under the same aliases in accounts he opened at
“Even though the winning bidders of the
auction items had sent their payment to the private mailboxes
designated by Rossoni, the items were never mailed or delivered to the
winning bidders,” the indictment said.
The father-son team had lived in
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(c) 2010, The Miami Herald.
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