United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

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

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

DALLAS MAN WHO RAN SCHEME TO SELL STOLEN GOODS
ON EBAY SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 14 YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE

A Dallas man who pled guilty last November to selling stolen goods on eBay was sentenced yesterday in federal court, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper. Cory I Paris, age 34, of Dallas, was sentenced by the Honorable David C. Godbey, United States District Judge, to 175 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $708,699.80 in restitution. Specifically, Paris pled guilty to six counts of wire fraud, three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of bank fraud. Paris’s co-defendant, Cassandra A. Clements, pled guilty in February to one count of wire fraud and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. Clements, age 33, also of Dallas, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2006 by Judge Godbey.

In addition, both Paris and Clements pled guilty to the forfeiture allegation regarding Paris’s Canton Street Loft in Downtown Dallas and Clements’s 1999 Porsche 911 and will be required to forfeit these properties to the government.

In an earlier, separate case, on May 9, 1996, Cory I. Paris was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for bank fraud. On August 6, 2001, Paris was released from incarceration to begin serving a three-year term of supervised release. However, just two months after his release from federal prison, in August 2001, Paris began selling stolen property on eBay and was arrested in July 2004 by officers with the Richardson, Texas, Police Department. From October 2001 to Paris’s arrest in July 2004, Paris, Clements and other coconspirators received $721,453.30 from sales of stolen property using ten eBay accounts. An eleventh eBay account was used from March 2005 to June 2005 to sell property stolen by Paris prior to his arrest. This eleventh eBay account generated proceeds of $13,263.75.

At the time of his arrest, the Richardson Police Department recovered property valued at approximately $272,699.69, consisting primarily of stolen property, but also property purchased with the proceeds from the sale of stolen property and property used in the commission of the burglaries, such as a drill, a crow bar and other tools.

Paris and his coconspirators were responsible for over 30 retail store burglaries, including post offices, business and sporting good stores, and boutiques. The burglaries occurred in and around Dallas, Austin, Kansas City, Phoenix, San Diego and San Francisco. Paris was involved in or received stolen property acquired through credit card fraud in 2001 and 2002, and through robberies of individuals during the summer of 2002. Although the Court found a loss figure attributable to Paris of $1,007,416,74 (constituting the total sales on eBay and the value of the recovered property), the Court acknowledged the loss figure undervalued the actual value of the stolen property and ordered Paris to pay $708,699,80 restitution to the known victims.

United States Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Richardson, Texas, Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Other police departments assisting in the investigation included the Flower Mound, Denton and Carrollton, Texas, Police Departments and the Overland Park and Lenexa, Kansas Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Candina S. Heath

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