St. Petersburg man scams business out of $1.2 million while in prison, the Fed says

A St. Petersburg man scams a nationwide business out of more than $1.2 million and used some of the money that was linked to the fraudulent prosecutors, federal prosecutors said.

Jared Borgesto Murray, now 41, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, the US lawyers’ office for the Central District of Florida.

Murray was represented by defense attorneys Summer Ray Goldman and Maribeth L. Wetzel of the Goldman Wetzel PLLC of St. Petersburg.

“This is a particularly unique case and Murray accepted the responsibility,” Goldman told McClatchy News in a statement emailed Monday.

Murray lost $1,260,495.89 in his national business between January 2019 and September 2020 when he was jailed after a conviction for a robbery in Pinellas County. According to prosecutors.

The business has not been identified by a US lawyer’s firm, but court records show that Murray was ordered to pay $1,269,495.89 to Lowe’s hardware store as part of the ruling.

The scheme prosecutor said Murray led him out of the state prison. Others accused of working with others, said they were “smuggling phones he smuggled” and that they were becoming facilities and impersonating customers.

Prosecutors said Murray called various parts of the business, “using the customer’s open credit line” while serving as a client, and purchased the product.

Murray and his suspected co-conspirators then sold the product online at a lower price, illegally winning $1.2 million, prosecutors said.

Murray and others say that the items delivered to various buyers were “paid to Murray and his conspirators via wire transfers and mailed checks,” according to prosecutors.

According to the US Law Office, Murray spent some of the money he received to buy materials for the house he built in Lake Placid and to buy materials for the house he built in Lake Placid.

The $43,550 from the housing and Murray bank account was eventually confiscated by authorities, according to prosecutors.

In a court application prior to Murray’s Wednesday ruling, Wetzel wrote on his behalf that this was “an extraordinary case.” “If only Murray applied talent to a legal business, I can imagine how far he would have gone.”

“Mr. Murray was imprisoned, but he took it over to himself and built a house. This is extraordinary evidence of his wit, driving and rehabilitation potential,” says the memorandum of the ruling filed by Wetzel.

Wetzel had asked the court to consider a sentence below Murray’s guidelines, a submission show, before US District Judge Stephen D. Maryday declared him to serve in prison for nearly five years.

In a note in the verdict, Wetzel characterized Murray’s case as “a story of misguided talent, missed opportunity, and systematic negligence.”