Man sentenced in Nebraska for helping swindle Verizon out of $528,000

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A sprawling fraud case came to an end Friday in a federal courtroom in Omaha.

Gregory Lorenzo, a 32-year-old from New York City, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

He was one of eight people who bilked Verizon Wireless of $528,000 over the course of several years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The first step in the scheme, which began in 2017, was to use stolen identities to create Verizon accounts.

Three of the identity theft victims were from Nebraska, authorities said.

Once the accounts were created, the group bought cellphones and accessories, billing them to the Verizon accounts.

The phones would be shipped to New York or New Jersey, where the fraudsters sold them on the black market, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The scheme began to unravel in February 2019, when two of the conspirators were caught trying to buy cellphones in Kearney using a Nebraskan’s stolen identity.

Authorities said each member of the group had a different job.

Lorenzo’s was to go to FedEx to pick up cellphones and other devices.

In January 2019, he went beyond that, traveling across the country to Washington state to help buy devices at Verizon stores.

Lorenzo was the last of the eight conspiracy members to be sentenced, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

After prison, he will spend three years on supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Robert F. Rossiter Jr. also ordered Lorenzo to pay restitution.