Guardyan
Stunt Coordinator
From mediaplaynews.com:
As if collectors didn't have enough problems already...
Five individuals and four companies have been sentenced for participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs sold on the Amazon Marketplace, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced Aug. 24.
A federal investigation led to a total of six individual guilty pleas and four corporate guilty pleas.
Victor Btesh of New York was sentenced to 18 months’ incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release, and a fine of $38,000. Btesh’s three companies — Michelle’s DVD Funhouse, MJR Prime, and Prime Brooklyn — were each respectively sentenced to criminal fines of $156,520, $125,688, and $61,844 on Aug. 23, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Last month, Emmanuel Hourizadeh, Raymond Nouvahian, Morris Sutton, Bruce Fish, and Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises Inc., were all sentenced on July 21, 2023, also in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Hourizadeh, and Nouvahian, both of New York, were sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, seven months’ home confinement, a criminal fine of $55,000 each, and two years of supervised release. Sutton, of New Jersey, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, five months’ home confinement, a $20,000 criminal fine, and two years of supervised released. Fish, of Minnesota, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, six months’ home confinement, a $48,750 criminal fine, and two years of supervised released. And Fish’s company, BDF Enterprises, was handed down a $234,000 criminal fine.
“Conspiring to fix prices in online marketplaces is a federal crime,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III, of the Eastern District of Tennessee. “These convictions and sentences demonstrate our office’s commitment to prosecuting price-fixing conspiracies and to protecting consumers in the Eastern District of Tennessee from paying inflated prices in online marketplaces.”
As if collectors didn't have enough problems already...