An Atlanta woman has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison for a fraud scheme that stole nearly $10 million from Amazon, federal prosecutors said.
Brittany Hudson, 40, was convicted of 30 felony charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and forgery of a federal judge’s signature.
Hudson, along with her partner Kayricka Wortham, 35, ran a fraud scheme against Amazon over six months and made luxury purchases before later falsifying court documents to try to open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta, according to the Northern District of Georgia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Couple Submitted Fake Invoices to Amazon
Starting in January 2022, while Wortham was working as an operations manager at an Amazon warehouse in Smyrna, she and her romantic partner began submitting fictitious invoices for fake vendors, “falsely claiming that the vendors had provided goods and services to Amazon,” federal prosecutors said.
Hudson already owned a business that contracted with Amazon to deliver packages and had a relationship with the company.
Wortham approved the invoices in her role at Amazon, causing the company to transfer money into bank accounts controlled by Hudson, Wortham and others.
Over six months, the duo submitted more than 1,000 fake invoices accounting for more than $9.4 million.
With the money, they bought multiple luxury vehicles, including a Lamborghini Urus and a Porsche Panamera, as well as a $1 million home in Smyrna.
The duo was first charged with fraud in December 2022. While they were out on bond in January 2023, they tried to defraud another company.
Falsified Signatures of Judges
Hudson and Wortham created counterfeit court documents with forged signatures from a chief U.S. district judge and a Cobb County magistrate judge, alleging that the charges they faced from the Amazon fraud had been dropped.
They emailed the documents to a franchising company in an attempt to start a franchise agreement and open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta.
Hudson also falsified financial statements with fake values in their bank accounts to try to get the franchise deal, according to federal prosecutors.
“Hudson and her partner engineered a massive fraud scheme against Amazon, stealing nearly $10 million in just a few months,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. “Hudson then showed her utter contempt for the law by forging a federal judge’s signature in a failed effort to defraud another company while out on bond. Today’s significant sentence, which must be served without the possibility of parole, holds her accountable for her crime spree.”
Sentences and Restitution
Hudson was sentenced to 16 years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Wortham had previously been sentenced to 17 years in prison with the same release process.
The couple was ordered to pay $9,469,731.45 in restitution to Amazon, forfeit their Smyrna home and vehicles, and pay an additional $3 million.
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