Greenlaw indicted on Federal fraud charges
Published on October 12th, 2005
In a satisfying denouement to a long-standing investigation by Stoneham Police, a former Stoneham resident that bilked consumers all over the country of thousands of dollars has been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on wire and mail fraud charges - a pair of Federal charges that could net him a sentence of at least 20 years in prison.
Thomas Greenlaw, age 26, of 13 Pomeworth Street, Stoneham, faces seven counts of Mail Fraud and six counts of Wire Fraud in connection with a series of online scams in which he received payments from individuals for the purported sale of items such as laptop computers, photographic equipment and video game systems.
If convicted of the charges in US Federal Court, Greenlaw faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on each of the 13 counts.
United States Attorney Michael Sullivan and Peter Zegerac, Postal Inspector in Charge of the US Postal Inspection Service in New England, announced the charges.
"There was a considerable amount of investigative work by this Police Department that went into his initial arrests and the eventual indictment," said Stoneham Police Lt. Rick McCarthy, who added that the Stoneham Police worked closely with the Middlesex District Attorney's Office to help further the case onto the federal level. "It's nice to see that all of that work has led to an end result and a federal indictment
According to police reports, once he received payment for items on auction Web sites such as Yahoo and Ebay, but never delivered the promised items or a refund to the victims - online consumers everywhere from Florida to Arizona.
Greenlaw allegedly asked customers to pay him by US Postal Service money orders, and then gave the customers US Postal Service tracking numbers with purposely incorrect addresses - normally filled with blank video tapes or old newspapers. The customers could always confirm through the postal service Web site that a package was on its way to their zip code, but they couldn't tell what specific address the package was destined for.
When the phony package was delivered to the wrong address, Greenlaw would reportedly claim there had been a shipping error and would refuse to refund their money.
According to McKinnon, the 26-year-old has allegedly scammed at least $40,000 from Yahoo and Ebay Auction users in fraudulent transactions while living in Stoneham between the years 2001-2003, and was arrested twice by Stoneham Police during that span for his reputed online thievery.
Posting a refund-policy at times from a closed bank account to reassure buyers wary of his auctions and avoiding detection by using library computers, which have their internet records erased on a regular basis, Greenlaw has been warned various times by McKinnon and other police officials to cease his illegal Internet activities, the detective added.
Greenlaw is currently serving time in New Hampshire prison on August 2003 charges for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in Atkinson, New Hampshire.
Greenlaw reportedly met the teen-ager online and entered into an agreement to pay the girl $100 for sexual favors.
"He stated that he knew immediately that she was not 18-years-old and guessed that she was 14...Even knowing this, he still allowed her to enter his vehicle. He stated that he did not touch the young girl and if she said he did, it's her word against his," the New Hampshire Police report read, which also claimed that Greenlaw told police he picked the girl up at a local gas station and that she willingly entered his vehicle.
US Attorney Sullivan thanked both the Office of Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley and Stoneham Police for generating the investigation and bringing it to the attention of the Feds.
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