Man, woman sentenced in Internet car-sale scams
A Romanian man has been sentenced to eight years and one month in federal prison, and a Russian woman got almost six years, for scamming victims of more than $4.4 million by selling nonexistent cars over the Internet.
Authorities say 38-year-old Corneliu Weikum and 24-year-old Yulia Mishina-Heffron were sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro after pleading guilty in September to cash smuggling and wire and bank fraud charges.
Their lawyers say Weikum and Mishina-Heffron apologized before sentencing.
The two were convicted of taking part in a Romania-based scheme that advertised cars for sale on Internet from May 2007 to November 2010.
The judge also ordered Weikum and Mishina-Heffron to repay $4.4 million and to surrender more than $1.4 million in cash seized during the investigation.
