Couple Steals From Amazon

[Barbara1955]

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=C...azon&FORM=EWRE

[DNSB]

I seem to remember that story hitting the news late September / early October, 2017 when they pled guilty under a plea bargain. 8-9 months for sentencing on a guilty plea? The mills of justice are long past grinding slowly and are now giving continental drift competition.

[Barbara1955]

This Couple Got 6 YEARS!!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...nce/ar-AAydWzI

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

This Couple Got 6 YEARS!!

Not what I meant. They made a plea bargain and pled guilty in early October 2017 and it took till June 2018 for them to be sentenced? 8 months between the guilty pleas and sentencing? I wonder what, if any, kind of credit they got against their sentences for that time if it was spent in custody? Around here, the usual number is 2:1 so they would get 16 months knocked off their jail time.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not what I meant. They made a plea bargain and pled guilty in early October 2017 and it took till June 2018 for them to be sentenced? 8 months between the guilty pleas and sentencing? I wonder what, if any, kind of credit they got against their sentences for that time if it was spent in custody? Around here, the usual number is 2:1 so they would get 16 months knocked off their jail time.

Generally, in the US, you get credited for time served, but it just counts as straight 1:1 time. It starts running from the time you are charged and incarcerated awaiting trial.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Generally, in the US, you get credited for time served, but it just counts as straight 1:1 time. It starts running from the time you are charged and incarcerated awaiting trial.

That is standard.

[Ken Maltby]

They stole 1.2 million. (That would be a lot of people not getting the packages they paid for.) Are you saying you think 6 years, is too harsh a sentence?

Ken

[Barbara1955]

Ken they were Not stealing from other customers...

DNSB Plea bargains don't mean a thing until they are a done deal as in agreed restitution & Time served is finished. I don't believe that this is the Same People. Cause these folks are also going to be charged with FEDERAL Offence

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Ken they were Not stealing from other customers...

DNSB Plea bargains don't mean a thing until they are a done deal as in agreed restitution & Time served is finished. I don't believe that this is the Same People. Cause these folks are also going to be charged with FEDERAL Offence

What I was looking at was the delay between the trial and guilty pleas under the plea bargain and the date on which the sentencing was done. As for being the same people, all the stories I saw seemed to agree on the names of the couple and the name of their fence.

Looking at a story from Oct. 1, 2017 (Douglas Walker, The Star Press):

MUNCIE, Ind. – A Muncie couple have formally admitted to stealing more than $1.2 million in merchandise from online retail giant Amazon.

Erin Joseph Finan, 38, and Leah Jeanette Finan, 37, in recent weeks pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt set sentencing hearings for Nov. 9.

Both charges carry maximum 20-year prison terms and $500,000 fines

and the story from June 4, 2018 (Abrar Al-Heeti, CNET News):

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana said Monday that Erin and Leah Finan, both 38, who had previously pleaded guilty to charges of federal mail fraud and money laundering, were sentenced to 71 months and 68 months in jail, respectively. A third perpetrator, Danijel Glumac, 29, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering and to buying and selling the Finans' stolen property across state lines, was sentenced to 24 months in prison.

The original sentencing date was given as November 9, 2017.

Again my question was why the over 8 month delay between the trial and the sentencing? Nothing to do with how long the sentences are, just why did it take that long between the end of the trial and the sentencing hearing.

As for "are also going to be charged with FEDERAL Offence", I would suspect that since they pled guilty in a federal court to charges that included federal mail fraud and money laundering (see Money Laundering Control Act of 1986), they were already charged with federal offences. About being sentenced to spent their time in federal prison, I don't know how that works in the USA. Around here, sentences up to 2 years less a day land in provincial prisons while 2 years and up land in federal prisons.

Hopefully, my quotes are short enough to constitute fair use.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Again my question was why the over 8 month delay between the trial and the sentencing? Nothing to do with how long the sentences are, just why did it take that long between the end of the trial and the sentencing hearing.

As for "are also going to be charged with FEDERAL Offence", I would suspect that since they pled guilty in a federal court to charges that included federal mail fraud and money laundering (see Money Laundering Control Act of 1986), they were already charged with federal offences.

I assume that there were pending state and federal charges. They plead to the first set, and sentencing was delayed until all other charges had been dealt with. I assume that there was some sort of deal in exchange for testimony. When defendants cut deals like this, usually DAs/Prosecutors will wait to make sure they get the testimony that they bargained for (re: the third guy charged) before they are sentenced. Once the sentence is passed, the defendants can change their story or refuse to testify against co-conspirators and it won't affect the deal. Likely many moving parts.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I assume that there were pending state and federal charges. They plead to the first set, and sentencing was delayed until all other charges had been dealt with. I assume that there was some sort of deal in exchange for testimony. When defendants cut deals like this, usually DAs/Prosecutors will wait to make sure they get the testimony that they bargained for (re: the third guy charged) before they are sentenced. Once the sentence is passed, the defendants can change their story or refuse to testify against co-conspirators and it won't affect the deal. Likely many moving parts.

Not sure if that applies here. A bit of searching showed nothing that indicated the unnamed person/company the illegally obtained goods were sold to were charged or are going to be charged with any criminal offences. Likely their lawyers were able to argue they acted in good faith and had no knowledge of the way the goods were obtained, probably seasoned with a promise to be more careful in the future.

As for deals and lying, ask any Canadian about Karla Homolka. It became clear that she lied about damn near everything especially with the cache of video tapes that made it rather clear that she was not being compelled by Paul Bernardo but rather was a willing participant and leader in their rape and murder of at least three young girls including Homolka's sister. When this came out, the prosecutors in the case were all "we made a deal and we can't break it".

[Apache]

In the US you can be charged with buying stolen merchandise if the authorities decide that you paid to low a price and should have known that something was wrong with the sale.
Apache

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Apache

In the US you can be charged with buying stolen merchandise if the authorities decide that you paid to low a price and should have known that something was wrong with the sale.
Apache

Yes, there was a great case of this in my jurisdiction where a woman bought a brand new tractor worth $7,000 off of Craigslist (which is sort of a shady ebay type site) for $1,000. The court ruled that she should have known something had to be fishy and should not have made the purchase. She was charged and convicted of Receipt of Stolen Goods.

The case later appeared as a question on the bar examination.

[Apache]

We have had similar cases here with jewelers buying gold jewelry.
Apache

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Apache

In the US you can be charged with buying stolen merchandise if the authorities decide that you paid to low a price and should have known that something was wrong with the sale.
Apache

Looking at the amount reported as being required to be repaid by the three parties who were convicted, my impression is that they were not asking well under market value prices.