Feds: Inmate tried to steal $3M in heavy equipment

GORDON COUNTY, Ga. — Federal authorities sentenced a northwest Georgia antheral charged with moving a strategy to bargain astir $3 cardinal of dense instrumentality portion helium was locked up successful jail.

Damon Thomas Young, has been serving a 20-year condemnation astatine the Georgia State Prison successful Reidsville aft being convicted of assaulting a constabulary serviceman and 10 years for violating the state’s Racketeer, Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts arsenic quality breaks]

Young besides has anterior convictions of theft by taking, impersonating a nationalist officer, arson, forgery, burglary and arson on with theft by deception and was not eligible to beryllium released from jailhouse earlier June of 2030. Young had been sentenced connected the battle and the RICO charges successful 2010 and has been successful situation ever since.

Officials said this time, portion Young was serving his sentence, began utilizing a contraband cellphone successful 2019 to effort defrauding aggregate dense instrumentality dealers retired of millions of dollars worthy of equipment. They said Young was utilizing the alias Morgan Sylvia and claimed helium was a purchasing serviceman with AbbVie, a existent biopharmaceutical company. They said helium would past bid the dense operation instrumentality which would beryllium delivered successful and astir Ranger, Georgia wherever helium and his household lived claiming that the institution was gathering a installation successful Ranger..

Officials said that equipment, would past beryllium enactment up for merchantability connected Craigslist.

Young was capable to get a assortment of operation instrumentality by communicating with the dealers via phone, substance and email portion inactive successful prison. He was capable to implicit recognition applications, acquisition orders, income contracts and security documents which helium would nonstop backmost to the dealers arsenic portion of the scheme. Officials said helium was besides capable to nonstop the dealers a fraudulent firm solution papers allegedly signed by institution officers, but those signatures were successful information forged.

The U.S. attorney’s bureau said Young was capable to bid astir $3 cardinal of instrumentality from six antithetic dealers. They said astir of the dealers were capable to drawback the fraud earlier shipping the instrumentality but Young was inactive capable to get 4 pieces sent to him with a worth of implicit $500,000. He was capable to merchantability immoderate of the instrumentality online and usage the wealth to acquisition 2 Chevy trucks. The Gordon County Sheriff’s Office was capable to retrieve each the stolen and sold equipment.

TRENDING STORIES:

STORY 1

STORY 2

STORY 3

A national justice sentenced Young to 7 years successful situation for this transgression followed by 3 years of supervised released and the justice has ordered him to wage backmost $30,000 to the online purchaser of the stolen equipment.

The justice besides said the caller condemnation volition tally concurrently with the authorities condemnation he’s presently serving.

“Young schemed to bargain millions of dollars’ worthy of dense instrumentality portion serving a condemnation for assaulting a constabulary officer,” said U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine. “Inmates should not deliberation that the crimes they perpetrate from situation volition spell unpunished conscionable due to the fact that they are already incarcerated. As successful this case, inmates who perpetrate crimes from down bars look further national situation clip to beryllium served aft their authorities sentences end.”

“The usage of contraband compartment phones by inmates arsenic a instrumentality to proceed carrying retired crimes from down the walls of our facilities volition not beryllium tolerated,” said Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Timothy C. Ward. “We are grateful to our instrumentality enforcement partners connected each level for ensuring justness is served connected this idiosyncratic for his relation successful jeopardizing some the harmless and unafraid operations of our facilities and the information of the public.”

“We are precise pleased that this substance has been brought to a palmy decision done the combined efforts of our partners successful authorities and national government, and ourselves. This was a monolithic and analyzable probe that required the champion efforts of each the officers, agents and prosecutors assigned to the case. My congratulations to each investigative bureau and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for each of their hard work,” Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston said.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

©2021 Cox Media Group