Brazilian man who lived in CT sentenced in scheme that defrauded Home Depot of nearly $300K
A Brazilian national who formerly lived in Connecticut was sentenced on Tuesday in a scheme that defrauded Home Depot of nearly $300,000, federal officials said.
Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 27, who lived in West Hartford, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. to time served and three years of federal supervised release after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on Nov. 9, 2023, to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy, according to Zachary A. Cunha, United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island.
Costa-Mota, who was arrested almost two years ago, was also ordered to pay restitution to Home Depot in the amount of $297,332 and faces deportation proceedings, Cunha said in a release on Tuesday.
For more than eight months from mid-2021 to early 2022, Costa-Mota reportedly operated a scheme to steal and return merchandise from at least 40 Home Depot locations in multiple states from Maine to Rhode Island to Maryland, according to federal officials.
Court records show that, on at least 60 occasions, Costa-Mota reportedly stole merchandise from the retailer and then returned it for store credit.
“He amassed — and spent — $297,332 in store credit,” federal officials said. “To evade detection, he used fake driver’s licenses for identification purposes.”
Costa-Mota will be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to face deportation proceedings, according to federal officials.