PHOENIX, Ariz. – On Wednesday, Vu Anh Nguyen, 26, of Chandler, Arizona was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution to his victims.
Nguyen previously pleaded guilty to orchestrating two fraudulent schemes. In the first, Nguyen committed a type of securities fraud known as “free riding,” consisting of making transfers of funds into stock trading accounts from bank accounts that Nguyen knew were insufficiently funded. Nguyen traded with the transferred funds during the two or three days it took for the insufficiency in funds to be processed, resulting in losses to the trading entities of nearly $650,000.
In the second, Nguyen embezzled from his then-employer, Amazon.com. During the short time he was employed by Amazon, Nguyen used his employee access to issue $96,000 worth of refunds to several buyer accounts that he owned or controlled. Amazon discovered, investigated, and reported the fraud to the FBI.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Phoenix Division, conducted the investigation in this case. Monica Klapper, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, handled the prosecution.
CASE NUMBER: CR 20-000796-PHX-JAT
RELEASE NUMBER: 2021-081_Nguyen
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
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