PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A Portsmouth man was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
In March 2021, Dominique M. Avery, 29, took the identity of another person and got incorporated documents for a business that claimed to provide technology services, according to the Department of Justice. The business was called Home Technology Innovations, LLC (HTI).
Avery used the fake documents, a forged check and the personal identity information (PII) of several other people to make an out-of-state payroll service company deposit more than $150,000 in direct deposits into bank accounts, according to the DOJ. The direct deposits were purportedly for the salaries of HTI's employees.
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HTI had no real employees and Avery was able to access and spend a substantial portion of the money deposited into each account, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ says that this is not Avery's first offense.
The most recent scheme comes months after he finished a federal sentence for fraud offenses, according to the DOJ. Avery used several of the same victims from the previous case to commit new crimes.
