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Marc Anthony Alexander, 37, formerly of Stratford and Oxford, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 96 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, said U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly.
According to court documents and statements made in court, the first scheme involved the theft of postal money orders.
Alexander and others conspired to steal blocks of blank postal money orders from the U.S. Post Office in Old Greenwich. Marc Alexander, his wife Rachael Alexander, and others then imprinted the money orders with different dollar amounts using a computer font designed to make them appear authentic.
Marc Alexander, Rachael Alexander, Bernard Harris and others then deposited the fraudulently imprinted postal money orders into bank accounts, either at an ATM or at a teller window.
They then withdrew and used the funds. They also used fraudulently imprinted postal money orders to make payments to other people.
The loss from this scheme was $313,570.
The second scheme involved the fraudulent sale of financed vehicles, prosecutors said.
Marc Alexander and Rachael Alexander took straw buyers to car dealerships and had them fill out financing paperwork to buy high-end cars.
The Alexanders would take the car and the straw buyers would sign a power of attorney form to allow them to obtain a new title.
The Alexanders would then contact the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, claim the title had been lost and say they needed a replacement title.
At the DMV, they would present a fake letter from the car financing company stating that the loan had been paid off in full. After they received a new title, the Alexanders would sell the car to another dealer.
The original car loans were not paid and went into default.
The straw buyers financed more than $1 million in fraudulent car loans during this scheme.
Alexander has been detained since his arrest on April 26, 2016. On Jan. 17, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from the postal money order scheme, and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud stemming from the vehicle scheme.
His criminal history includes a 2004 conviction in California for stealing the identity of an NFL player and using the identity to purchase a townhouse and cars, including a $245,000 Bentley. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison for that offense.
In 2006, again pretending to be affiliated with the NFL, Alexander defrauded two individuals he met at the gym where he worked. For that offense, he was sentenced in New London Superior Court to 12 years, with seven years in prison and five years of probation.
He was on state probation while engaged in the criminal activity that resulted in these federal charges.
Rachael Alexander, also known as Rachael Vierling, and Bernard Harris have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
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