Five Amazon sellers sentenced, mastermind gets 18 months in prison

As Americans become more and more dependent on the online shopping market, U.S. judicial agencies are paying more and more attention to the crimes committed by online sellers.

Recently, the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice released such a news: Five online sellers were sentenced for conspiring to manipulate the prices of DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Amazon stores.

It is reported that Victor Btesh from New York and Bruce Fish from Highfield, Minnesota, as the mastermind, colluded with three sellers to raise the prices of DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Amazon stores , causing these products to be sold to consumers at higher prices.

The mastermind, Victor Btesh, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release (a sentencing method used by the state, provincial or federal court system in the United States to implement supervision after release), and fined $38,000. His three companies, Michelle's DVD Funhouse, MJR Prime and Prime Brooklyn, were sentenced to criminal fines of $156,520, $12,688 and $61,844 respectively.

Bruce Fish was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement, a $48,750 criminal fine, and two years of supervised release. His company, BDF Enterprises, was sentenced to a $234,000 criminal fine.

Accomplices Emmanuel Hourizadeh and Raymond Nouvahian were sentenced to one month in prison and seven months of home confinement, respectively, and were each ordered to pay a $55,000 criminal fine and two years of supervised release.

Morris Sutton was sentenced to one month in prison and five months of home confinement , a $20,000 criminal fine and two years of supervised release.

Manish Kumar, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division , said that as Americans increasingly rely on online marketplaces, protecting their rights has become more important than ever; these sentences reflect the department’s commitment to combating all criminal violations of antitrust laws, no matter where they occur.

Francis M. Hamilton III, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee , believes that price manipulation in online marketplaces is a crime, and these sentences demonstrate their determination to protect the rights of consumers in the Eastern District of Tennessee in online marketplaces and combat such cases.

Kenneth Cleevely, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG) , said that price-fixing collusion is not conducive to creating a fair competitive environment and ultimately harms consumer interests; the verdict in this case represents a victory for law enforcement agencies and ensures that justice is served.

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