GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — U.S. Attorney Andrew B. Birge announced that three separate Michigan men pled guilty to mail fraud.
Authorities report that court documents revealed Paul Larson, age 32 of Kalamazoo, Gregory Gleesing, age 43 of Portage, and Lovedeep Singh Dhanoa, age 25 of Portage, worked with Geoffrey Mark Talsma, age 36, of Kalamazoo, in a scheme to defraud Amazon’s textbook rental program.
From September 2016 to October 2019 Larson, Gleesing, and Dhanoa were taught by Talsma to create numerous Amazon accounts with fake names, various street addresses, and several email accounts to take advantage of Amazon’s 15 textbook rentals per customer limit.
With the fake accounts, they were able to help Talsma obtain textbooks at a rental price for a fraction of their real value prior to selling them at a profit through bookstores and through the internet all while avoiding paying the agreed buyout price for the books at the end of the rental period.
Larson will be sentenced Tuesday, June 21, 2022, Dhanoa on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, and Gleesing on Wednesday, June 1, 2022.
All three men face a maximum of 20 years in prison with a federal district judge determining their sentence after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. In addition to the prison time, all three men will be ordered to pay restitution to Amazon.
Talsma is scheduled for trial beginning on April 5, 2022, at the United States District Court in Lansing. At this point, the charges Talsma faces are allegations meaning he is innocent until proven guilty.
