A federal judge sentenced a man convicted of defrauding eBay customers to a year in jail, departing from guidelines that recommended a 41-month minimum sentence.

But he declined a request by Curry’s lawyers to overturn the jury verdict.

He said he was dispensing a lesser sentence because he didn’t believe Curry set out to scam people. He also gave him credit for returning most of the money.

Besides the one-year prison term, Kelley gave Curry another year under house arrest.

Curry has already forfeited $116,000 toward restitution.

The judge allowed Kelley to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service on Oct. 19 to begin serving his sentence.

The FBI began investigating Curry last year when his customers complained that they had not received rare gold coins that they had purchased from him over eBay, the online auction house.

Curry either failed to deliver nearly 400 coins or sent coins that differed from his advertisement, court records say.

His attorneys said Monday that he had sold some 14,000 rare coins legitimately before falling into logistical problems, such as losing bids on coins from estate sales. They said Curry never intended to defraud anyone and had actually repaid some of the customers.

Curry also claimed that a mail service lost $100,000 worth of coins that were meant for his customers, but he could provide no receipts for the coins or for the shipping.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked Kelley to sentence Curry within the federally recommended guideline of 41 to 51 months. Prosecutors are considering an appeal.

Kenneth W. Curry II, 47, of Virginia Beach was found guilty by a jury of multiple counts of mail and wire fraud.
He was convicted at the May trial of bilking about $123,000 from 25 eBay customers across the country who thought they were buying rare gold coins from him.
“I was a little surprised by the jury’s verdict,” U.S. District Judge Walter D. Kelley Jr. said during Monday’s four-hour sentencing hearing.

Posted: 09|22|05 at 9:44 am. Filed under: US News.