HARRISBURG—The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Patrick Barkers-Woode, age 30, of Pine Hill, New Jersey, was sentenced on July 13, 2022, by U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson to 111 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release.
On November 22, 2019, both Barkers-Woode and co-defendant Nana Mensah were convicted on 15 counts of mail fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft. Mensah is awaiting sentencing.
Judge Wilson also sentenced co-defendant Jason Moskovitz to 39 months’ imprisonment to be followed by three years’ supervised release. On November 14, 2019, Moskovitz pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Barkers-Woode and Moskovitz were both ordered to pay restitution to Sprint, Inc. in the amount of $357,565.92 and Moskovitz was ordered to forfeit $576,929 and 107 electronic devices.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, the defendants were involved in an international scheme in which co-conspirators would steal victims’ identity in order to open Sprint Cell phone accounts. As part of opening the new accounts, the co-conspirators would order new cell phones and have them delivered to vacant homes where they would be picked up by other co-conspirators and eventually resold. At trial, the Government presented evidence that the conspiracy involved over 270 packages, containing over 830 cell phones, valued at over $595,000. Further, the conspiracy took advantage of over 240 identity theft victims.
The case was prosecuted by Homeland Security Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Delaware State Police, and the Derry Township Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott R. Ford and Christian T. Haugsby are prosecuting the case.
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