ROM, Georgia – Damon Thomas Young, aka Morgan Sylvia, was convicted of stealing nearly $ 3 million in heavy equipment from various vendors for his fraud scheme while serving a 20-year state sentence as a detainee in the Georgia Corrections Department.
“Young planned to steal several million dollars worth of heavy equipment while serving a sentence for assaulting a police officer,” said US Attorney Kurt R. Erskine. “Inmates shouldn’t believe that the crimes they commit while in prison will go unpunished just because they are already in prison. As in this case, prisoners who commit crimes behind bars must serve additional federal prison sentences after their state sentences have ended. “
“Young has committed an elaborate fraud scheme that continues his criminal activities behind bars, and he continues to be punished for this by serving an unpolluted federal prison term,” said Alex Santiago, acting special agent for FBI Atlanta. “The FBI would like to thank our state and local partners for all of their hard work and persistence in keeping these criminals behind bars for a considerable period of time.”
“People who commit crimes, even behind bars, shouldn’t expect to evade accountability. The GBI continues to work with federal and local partners to ensure that this type of investigation results in a successful prosecution, ”said Vic Reynolds, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“Detainees’ use of smuggled cell phones as a means of continuing to commit crimes behind the walls of our facilities will not be tolerated,” said Timothy C. Ward, commissioner for the Georgia Department of Corrections. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners at all levels for ensuring that justice is done to this person for their role in endangering both the safe operation of our facilities and the safety of the public.”
“We are very pleased that this matter was brought to a successful conclusion with the combined efforts of our partners in the state and federal government and us. This was a massive and complex investigation that required the best efforts of all officials, agents and prosecutors charged with the case. I congratulate all law enforcement agencies and the US Attorney’s Office on their hard work, “said Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston.
According to US Attorney Erskine, the charges and other information were presented in court: Damon Thomas Young has been an inmate in the Georgia Department of Corrections since 2010, first at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia, and then at Hays State Prison in Trion, Georgia. Young is serving a 20-year state sentence for aggravating a police officer and a 10-year sentence for violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Young also has a criminal record for theft, fraud, arson, forgery, burglary and arson, and theft by fraud. His maximum possible release date from state prison is June 16, 2030.
In 2019, while serving his state sentence, Young used a smuggled cell phone to defraud or defraud multiple heavy equipment dealers with equipment valued at millions of dollars. Using the pseudonym Morgan Sylvia and serving as a purchasing agent at AbbVie, a true biopharmaceutical company, Young ordered heavy construction equipment that he had shipped to and around Ranger, Georgia, where he and his family lived. He then put the equipment on Craigslist for sale to buyers.
To commit his fraud, Young called heavy equipment dealers, pretended to be Morgan Sylvia, a fictional purchasing agent, and said he wanted to order heavy equipment. Using the pseudonym Sylvia, Young incorrectly stated that AbbVie needed the equipment because it was building a facility in Ranger. He ordered heavy equipment such as wheel loaders, skid steer loaders, excavators, horizontal grinders and dump trucks. Young communicated with the equipment vendors by phone, text message, and email from the prison. He fraudulently filled out loan applications, purchase orders, sales contracts and insurance records and emailed them to dealers as part of the program. He also emailed a fraudulent AbbVie company closure document that was allegedly signed by actual corporate executives at the company, but the truth was that he had forged the signatures on the document.
As part of his plan, Young fraudulently ordered over $ 2.8 million worth of equipment from six different equipment vendors. Most of the dealers caught the scam before shipping, but Young managed to purchase four units valued at over $ 500,000. He sold some of the stolen equipment online and used the proceeds to buy two Chevrolet work vehicles. The Gordon County Sheriff’s Office has since recovered all stolen equipment that has been delivered.
Young, 39, of Ranger, Georgia, was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and paid $ 30,000 to the online buyer of the stolen equipment. The court ordered five years of the federal sentence to be added to the state sentence that Young is currently serving. Young was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft on August 27, 2021 after pleading guilty.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gordon County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Georgia Department of Corrections Criminal Investigation Division.
Stephen H. McClain, Assistant Attorney General, Senior Vice President of Complex Fraud, is pursuing the case.
For more information, please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Public Affairs at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The United States Attorney’s web address for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
