From April 2019 through October 19, 2023, the self-styled Artemis Refund Group (“ARG”) engaged in numerous refund-fraud schemes to steal goods from online retailers for its own benefit and that of others. ARG advertised their refund fraud services heavily on online messaging forums, resulting in hundreds of customers being defrauded and placing thousands of refund fraud orders. Some of these fraudulently refunded orders were shipped to the Northern District of Oklahoma, giving rise to venue in
this district.
As part of the refund fraud conspiracy, ARG would instruct fraud customers to purchase a product of their choice from one of the many retailers they targeted, collect information about the order, and then contact the retailer to initiate a fraudulent refund using a variety of methods tailored to that retailer. After ARG successfully deceived the retailer into processing a fraudulent refund, the fraudulent customers would retain possession of the item but still received a full refund of the purchase price. ARG typically charged customers between 15% and 25% of the refunded item’s total price. Members of ARG also engaged in the scheme to obtain stolen goods for themselves and resell them on online marketplaces for profit.
Eleven defendants have pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and were sentenced:
- Wyatt Douglas Miller, 24, of San Marcos, CA, was ordered to serve 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release.
- Tyler Dewayne Rogers, 24, of Goleta, CA, was ordered to serve 51 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.
- Kevin Ramses Rocha, 24, of Littlerock, CA, was ordered to serve 30 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.
- Jonah Maxwell Fesman, 23, of Altadena, CA, was ordered to six months of home detention, followed by two years of supervised release.
- Antonio Ernesto Munoz, 24, of Palmdale, CA, was ordered to serve 37 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.
- Juan Manuel Camacho-Zarate, 25, of Santa Maria, CA, was ordered to serve three years of probation and to pay
a $4,000 fine. - Cameron David Martin, 23, of Winter Garden, FL, was ordered to serve three years of probation.
- Ilyess Hadri Talbi, 20, of Columbus, OH, was ordered to serve three years of probation.
- Steven Lin, 27, of Philadelphia, PA, was ordered to serve three years of probation and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine.
- Gilbert Immanuel, 25, of Lutz, FL, was ordered to eight months of home detention, followed by two years of
supervised release. - Prit Patel, 24, from Canada, was ordered to serve 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.
Seven defendants from the Republic of Singapore and one from the United Kingdom still have arrest warrants pending.
The cyber squads of the FBI Oklahoma City and Birmingham Field Offices, as well as agents from the FBI Seattle Field Office, investigated the case. Substantial assistance and cooperation were provided by Target, Amazon’s Customer Protection and Enforcement Team, Walmart, Wayfair, Dell Technologies, Dick’s Sporting Goods, HP Inc., Adidas, Google’s CyberCrime Investigation Group, and eBay’s Criminal & Regulatory Investigations Team.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Robert, Christopher J. Nassar, and Matthew P. Cyran are prosecuting the case.
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