SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Patricia Castaneda, 38, of Redwood Metropolis, was sentenced to 33 months in jail and her brother, Eric Castaneda, 37, additionally of Redwood Metropolis, was sentenced to 18 months in jail by U.S. District Choose Kimberly J. Mueller for his or her roles in a scheme that concerned the theft and interstate sale of Apple MacBooks, U.S. Legal professional Phillip A. Talbert introduced.
As well as, Choose Mueller ordered Patricia Castaneda to pay $4,077,832 in restitution and ordered Eric Castaneda to pay $2,283,155 in restitution.
In accordance with court docket paperwork, Patricia Castaneda labored within the College of Humanities and Sciences at a personal college in Stanford, California. In her place, Patricia Castaneda’s duties included ordering MacBooks for college school and workers. In 2009 or 2010, Patricia Castaneda started stealing MacBooks she ordered and promoting them for money. Initially, Patricia Castaneda bought the stolen MacBooks to a person she met on Craigslist. In roughly February 2016, Patricia Castaneda started giving the stolen MacBooks to Eric Castaneda to promote to a person named Philip James who, in flip, resold and shipped the MacBooks from Folsom to consumers outdoors California.
In complete, the associated fee to the college of MacBooks Patricia Castaneda stole was over $4 million. That quantity contains the associated fee to the college of roughly 800 stolen MacBooks Eric Castaneda bought to James, which was roughly $2.3 million.
This case was a product of an investigation by the IRS-Felony Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Legal professional Matthew Thuesen prosecuted the case.
In a separate case, on April 11, 2022, James pleaded responsible for his function within the scheme.
