ST. LOUIS (AP) - A Florissant man was ordered to pay nearly $800,000 and sentenced to five years in prison for a fraud scheme, federal officials said.
Brandon Harper, 36, admitted using fake IDs and credit cards to defraud victims out of more than $500,000, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Missouri said in a news release.
The investigation began when police stopped Harper for a traffic violation and found several passports and IDs under different names, along with credit cards issued to other people and $15,000 in Amazon gift cards and cash.
During the investigation, officials discovered someone had diverted $400,000 in payments from a Catholic charity. Video showed Harper using a fake identification to withdraw $222,000 and put it in an account he controlled, prosecutors said.
While he was running that fraud scheme, Harper was working at a Office Max/Office Depot as a manager and cashier. The company’s loss prevention department discovered he made more than $20,000 in gift card transactions in one day and $150,000 in seven months, prosecutors said.
Harper pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced on Friday.
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