Abstract:
Two Atlanta women were sentenced to 16 years in federal prison after being found guilty of orchestrating a scam that stole nearly $10 million from Amazon, as well as forging a judge's signature. Brittany Hudson was sentenced last week and will receive three years of supervised release after serving her sentence.
Author: Chris Morris
Her accomplice Kelika Wortham was sentenced to the same 16-year sentence in 2023. In March, Wortham had an additional year added to his sentence after pleading guilty to forging a federal judge's signature. The court also ordered the two to pay Amazon $9.469731.45 in compensation, and the properties and vehicles in their names were confiscated.
The U.S. Department of Justice said that Hudson was convicted by a jury in March of this year on a total of 30 felonies and was
not eligible for parole
.U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Herzberg said in a statement: "Hudson and her associates orchestrated a massive fraud against Amazon, stealing nearly $10 million in just a few months. While she was out on bail awaiting trial, she forged a federal judge's signature in an attempt to defraud another company, a move that fully demonstrated her total contempt for the law. Today's heavy sentencing... is an accountability for her series of criminal acts."
"Greed is completely out of control"
The investigative agency identified Hudson as the mastermind of this series of crimes. She ran a company that delivered packages for Amazon and was in a relationship with Wortham, who worked as an operations manager at an Amazon warehouse outside Atlanta.
According to official disclosures, in January-June 2022, the two used false invoices and entered false supplier accounts into the Amazon supplier system. With his position authority, Wortham can approve new suppliers and invoice payments. Ultimately, Hudson and Wortham submitted more than 1,000 false invoices, all of which were approved by Wortham.
According to reports, the proceeds from the fraud were used to purchase a home worth $1 million and multiple luxury cars, including a 2019 Lamborghini Urus and a 2018 Porsche Panamera. Criminal charges were filed against the two in September 2022.
When the U.S. Secret Service announced the result of Hudson's conviction earlier this year, it commented that this was a case that "can only be described as greed completely out of control."
Crime gets worse
The Ministry of Justice said that while on bail pending trial, the two also tried to defraud a franchise company. They lied to a hookah parlor operator that the Amazon-related charges against them had been dropped; they also sent doctored financial statements and attached court documents with forged signatures, including those of former Federal District Court Chief Judge Timothy C. Batten and the then-prosecutor of the case, Cobb County Magistrate Judge Norman L. Barnett.
The U.S. Secret Service posted a comment on LinkedIn: "While the federal case is pending, it would not be a wise move to make this fact."
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