NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Portsmouth man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for a wire fraud and identity theft scheme.
In March 2021, 29-year-old Dominique M. Avery, assumed the identity of another person and used fraudulent documents to establish a service business called Home Technology Innovations or HTI, according to court documents. In total, he was sentenced to 57 months in prison.
Avery used fraudulently obtained documents, a forged check, and the personal identifying information or PII of multiple individuals to cause an out-of-state payroll service company to deposit over $150,000 into various bank accounts, supposedly for HTI employee salaries.
In reality, HTI had no employees, and Avery managed to spend a significant portion of the funds before he was caught.
Avery had previously been convicted of federal fraud offenses, for which he had previously completed his federal sentence.
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