Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Twin brothers Eric Coley and Derrick Coley were sentenced December 14 by United States District Court Judge Charles R. Norgle, Sr. to serve 12 years in prison for their supervisory roles in a scheme to defraud Sprint and its customers. The defendants, 33-year-old Chicago natives, each pleaded guilty to wire fraud on April 8, 2011. As part of their sentence, the defendants were ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to Sprint, and ordered to forfeit six high-end automobiles and two motorcycles recovered during the investigation.
The sentence was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Jack Riley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Grant, and Mr. Riley thanked the Chicago Police Department, which also participated in the investigation.
The government established at sentencing that Eric Coley and Derrick Coley fraudulently obtained Sprint network credentials from a variety of sources in order to access the Sprint computer network and fraudulently input orders for Sprint cellular telephones that were charged to the accounts of existing Sprint customers, without the knowledge or authorization of the true Sprint account holders. During the scheme Eric Coley and Derrick, along with other co-schemers, traveled to Colorado and Louisiana seeking to obtain Sprint equipment and information that would enable them to fraudulently access the Sprint computer network. As part of the scheme, delivery agents for interstate carriers were paid to provide the defendants with fraudulently ordered Sprint cellphone packages that were addressed to third parties at a variety of locations. The defendants also caused the fraudulently ordered cellphones to be delivered to associates in other states, such as Florida, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Four co-defendants, including a former Sprint employee and former UPS delivery driver, have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
The government is being represented by Assistant United States Attorneys Brian Hayes and Tinos Diamantatos.
