Local couple charged in $1.2 million Amazon theft

The Star Press

MUNCIE, Ind. – A local couple have been accused of stealing more than $1.2 million in electronics from online retailer Amazon.

Erin Joseph Finan and Leah Jeanette Finan, both 37, were charged this week in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis with mail fraud and money laundering.

The Finans – listed in court documents in recent years at addresses in Muncie and Anderson – have also negotiated deals with federal prosecutors, and are scheduled to enter guilty pleas at Sept. 14 hearings.

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Both charges carry maximum 20-year prison terms and $500,000 fines.

The plea deals would leave sentencing up to a judge, and include an order that the couple pay Amazon $1,218,504 in restitution.

If sentenced to less than seven years and three months in federal prison, the Finans would waive their right to appeal.

According to U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler, the couple purchased hundreds of electronics items from Amazon – including GoPro digital cameras, Microsoft Xboxes, Samsung smartwatches and Microsoft Surface tables – under “hundreds of false online identities.”

They then routinely contacted Amazon to falsely claim the items they had received were damaged or not working, and requested and received replacements from the retailer at no charge.

Authorities allege the Finans sold the stolen merchandise to Danijel Glumac, 28, of Indianapolis, who in turn sold the items to an unnamed “New York entity,” which then resold them to consumers.

Glumac laundered his profits through bank accounts tied to his clothing business, then paid the Finans their shares, investigators allege.

Glumac allegedly received more than $1.2 million from the “New York entity,” and paid the Finans about $725,000.

A federal grand jury has indicted Glumac on charges of interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering.

The Indianapolis man also allegedly “advised the Finans on how to evade detection by Amazon,” a press release said.

The charges followed an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Indiana State Police.

“Consumer fraud is absorbed by all of us through higher retail prices,” Minkler said in the release. “Buying and selling black market items across state lines is against federal law and those who choose to ignore that will be held accountable.”

Leah Finan was charged April 17 in Delaware Circuit Court 5 with theft, deception and check deception.

Her husband has been convicted of theft, in Madison County, and check deception, in Delaware County.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.