Ex-mobile phone industry executive gets 10 years in U.S. prison

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. LEGAL NEWS APRIL 2, 2018 / 6:35 PM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

Ex-mobile phone industry executive gets 10 years in U.S. prison

Nate Raymond
2 MIN READ

(Reuters) - A former mobile phone industry executive was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison after being convicted on U.S. charges that he engaged in a scheme to defraud millions of consumers by charging them for unwanted text messages.

Darcy Wedd, the former chief executive of Mobile Messenger, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan after a federal jury in December found him guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy charges, prosecutors said.

The verdict followed two earlier mistrials. A lawyer for Wedd, 40, did not respond to a request for comment

Wedd is one of eight people to be convicted on charges related to their participation in the fraud, which involved forcing consumers to pay monthly fees for unsolicited, recurring text messages without their knowledge or consent.

Prosecutors said that Wedd’s company compiled, or “aggregated,” charges for premium text messaging services like horoscopes, celebrity gossip and trivia on consumers’ mobile phone bills.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-textmessaging/ex-mobile-phone-industry-executive-gets-10-years-in-u-s-prison-idUSKCN1H91YR

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Someone should go to jail just for creating those horrible contracts. nt

[nitpicker]

2. From the DoJ PR

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-mobile-phone-industry-ceo-sentenced-manhattan-federal-court-10-years-prison-role

(snip)
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DARCY WEDD was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for his participation in a fraudulent scheme to charge mobile phone customers millions of dollars in monthly fees for unsolicited, recurring text messages without the customers’ knowledge or consent – a practice known as “auto-subscribing.” The fraud committed by WEDD and his co-conspirators resulted in the theft of over $150 million from consumers throughout the United States.
(snip)