Syracuse Man Sentenced to Prison for Sophisticated Fraud Schemes

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Donald M. Geiss, Jr., age 44, of Syracuse, was sentenced yesterday to 65 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to four counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in relation to various schemes to defraud he perpetrated on victims in multiple states, announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In previously pleading guilty, Geiss admitted that between approximately August 2016 through August 2017 he perpetrated various fraud schemes on victims in multiple states, including by collecting money from his victims by (1) posing as an investor and pretending to go through the process of buying a business in the Syracuse area in order to gain access to the business; (2) pretending to negotiate the sale of a non-existent computer algorithm for insurance claims to a well-known multinational finance and insurance corporation in New York; (3) convincing a victim to purchase several online video game profiles from other people on Geiss’s behalf; and (4) selling fake and fraudulent “discount” airline tickets over the internet. In perpetrating these various crimes, Geiss used at least one alias, one false identity, and two stolen identities. Geiss ultimately obtained a total of more than $167,000 from his various victims.

Geiss was on supervised release related to a prior federal fraud conviction when he committed all of the crimes for which he was sentenced yesterday. In addition to the 65-month prison sentence, Geiss was also sentenced to serve an additional 6 months in prison for violating the terms of his supervised release by committing the fraud and aggravated identity theft offenses. In total, Geiss will serve 71 months in prison. The Court also ordered Geiss to pay money judgments totaling over $153,000, and to pay restitution to his victims of more than $167,000. Following his release from prison, Geiss will be on supervised release for 3 years.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Perry.