Man Sentenced In Cheyenne Cell-Phone Fraud Case
A man involved in a Cheyenne cell-phone fraud case has been sentenced to six months in prison, according to a release from the Cheyenne Police Department.
CPD spokesman Officer David Inman says the case began when Sprint contacted police about phones being purchased fraudulently and being shipped to various addresses in Cheyenne. On August 8, 2019, a CPD surveillance team watched as a package was delivered to a Cheyenne home.
The suspect in the case, Tracy Reighard, arrived at the home and picked up the package as detectives watched. Police soon stopped Reighard and seized the package. Reighard told investigators that he was involved in receiving and the phones and shipping them to his "fiance, Joyce" in Ghana.
Investigators also found out that Reighard was using his two local credit unions to wore money to phony companies on the east coast of the United States and overseas. Police also say the scam targeted several dozen to possibly hundreds of victims of identity theft in the Cheyenne area. Most of the victims had fake Sprint accounts opened in their names.
The financial loss to Sprint was so bad that the company stopped shipping phones to Cheyenne during that time. Police say they don't know exactly how big of a financial hit that Sprint and local identity theft victims took, but it's estimated at around $750,000.
The case ended up being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Wyoming with the help of the Cheyenne FBI office.
Reighard pled guilty to a charge of wire fraud. He was sentenced to six months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised probation. he was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and a $100 restitution fee, according to the release.
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