Barred Long Island Automobile Transportation Broker Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison For Mail Fraud

Earlier today in Central Islip, New York, Gregory Sclafani, an automobile transportation broker, was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release based on his March 31, 2016, guilty plea to mail fraud.  The defendant was also ordered to pay his victims restitution.  In 2011, the defendant was permanently enjoined from providing automobile transportation services in New York following a civil lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General’s Office in 2009. 

The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. 

In announcing the sentence today, U.S. Attorney Capers stated, “The defendant’s scheme to victimize unsuspecting customers was particularly brazen in that it was executed while the defendant was permanently enjoined from engaging in the transportation brokerage business.  He has now been held to account.”  Mr. Capers extended his grateful appreciation to the United States Postal Inspection Service; United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General; New York State Police; and the New York State Attorney General’s Office for their assistance in the case.

From 2007 until his arrest in 2014, the defendant made fraudulent representations to induce customers to use him as a broker for the long-distance hauling of their vehicles and then failed to deliver the services as contracted.  When aggrieved customers complained, the defendant ignored the complaints and retained the customers’ money.  Additionally, once in possession of the customers’ bank account information that had been provided for the services, the defendant made repeated unauthorized withdrawals from their bank accounts.  In an effort to conceal the ongoing fraud and to thwart the defrauded customers’ attempts to obtain refunds, the defendant frequently changed the names of the brokerage companies he controlled and used aliases when speaking to the aggrieved customers.

The scheme victimized at least 100 individuals.

The sentencing proceeding was held before United States District Judge Denis R. Hurley.  

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section.  Assistant United States Attorney Charles N. Rose is in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

GREGORy SCLAFANI
Age:  64
Southampton, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 14-CR-639 (DRH)