GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Portage man accused of renting and selling thousands of textbooks has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
36-year-old Geoffrey Mark Hays Talsma created multiple Amazon accounts to rent textbooks and sell them for profit online and to bookstores for more than five years without paying buyout prices, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office – Western District of Michigan.
We’re also told Talsma rented books under other people’s names and assumed their identities when contacting Amazon with false claims that the textbooks were not delivered.
Talsma’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Talsma faces as many as 22 years in prison for both charges, adding restitution and asset seizure may be ordered in addition to the prison sentence.
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