United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

PAIR WHO OPERATED “WORK AT HOME” SCAM
SENTENCED TO LENGTHY FEDERAL PRISON TERMS

A Dallas man and woman who admitted operating a fraudulent “work at home” scheme, have been sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms, without parole, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper.

Alice Fay Turner was sentenced today by the Honorable Ed Kinkeade, United States District Judge, to 46 months imprisonment, without parole, and ordered to pay $28,152.40 restitution. Earlier this month, her co-defendant, Malcolm G. Lincoln, was sentenced by Judge Kinkeade to 10 years imprisonment, without parole and ordered to pay $26,691.15 in restitution. Both Turner and Lincoln pled guilty in December to one count each of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Malcolm G. Lincoln has been in custody since his arrest in September on charges outlined in a criminal complaint. Turner was also arrested at that time and initially released on bond. On October 21, 2005, the Honorable Irma C. Ramirez, United States Magistrate Judge, revoked Turner’s bond and ordered her detained, finding that Turner had committed another federal crime while on bond. Just five days after she was released on bond, Turner made material false statements on an application for public assistance she submitted to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

In a scheme they ran from April 2004 through August 2005, Malcolm G. Lincoln and Alice Fay Turner, both residents of Dallas, defrauded people seeking home-based employment. Specifically, both Lincoln and Turner represented that certain businesses were hiring employees to stuff and mail envelopes, when in reality, these businesses did not exist.

They would place classified ads for home-based employment in newspapers and circulars throughout the United States. A person responding to the ad would call the phone number listed in the ad and leave a voice mail message with their name and mailing address to receive more information about the employment opportunity. Turner, Lincoln, or one of their employees, would then mail that person an information packet containing promotional materials that fraudulently represented that: 1) a certain business was hiring persons to stuff and mail envelopes containing items such as insurance forms and greeting cards; 2) for a fee, persons could enroll in one of several envelope-stuffing programs and based on the program in which the person enrolled, would receive a certain sum of money for every envelope stuffed and mailed; 3) persons enrolled in the envelope-stuffing programs were required to pay, in addition to the “enrollment fee,” a “materials fee” and “processing fee,” that was refundable upon the mailing of a certain number of envelopes; and 4) persons enrolled in the envelope stuffing program would receive all of the materials needed to perform the job.

Persons who responded to the classified ads mailed their application forms and fees to a post office box in Dallas that Turner rented in April 2004, and to which she gave Lincoln the key. Turner and Lincoln, who never intended to hire such persons, retrieved the application forms and fees and deposited the fees into their bank accounts. They would then spend the illegally acquired money on advertising expenses to continue the scheme or for their own personal use.

Turner and Lincoln never sent any of the applicants insurance forms or greeting cards to mail as represented in the promotional materials and they never refunded any of the applicants’ fees.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Addison Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tammy Reno.

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