Over a four-year span, 27 year old Christian Wink of Sauk County ordered items from Amazon. He ordered thousands of items from the online retail giant – and he would return packages. Except the packages he sent back would not contain what he had ordered. Wink would purchase things like ethernet switches or Wi-Fi routers on Amazon’s website and, after going through the return process, ship back cheaper or broken items. The U.S. Attorney’s Office sai he would often send items like cell phone charging cables. Federal prosecutors alleged he did this nearly 3,500 times between 2017 and 2020, costing Amazon over $370,000 in losses, because Wink had already received his full refund. Wink pleaded guilty to the scheme in June and appeared in a federal court on Tuesday to be sentenced. He also admitted having never paid taxes on any of the money he made, meaning Wink was convicted of both wire fraud and filing a false 2020 tax return. In its statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office pointed out it was an investigation by the IRS that led to his arrest.
