By Jeff Long |
A federal jury in Minnesota this morning convicted a Deerfield couple of defrauding retail giant Best Buy by overcharging the company more than $41 million for computer parts.
Russell Cole once called his extravagant Deerfield home “the house that Best Buy built,” according to documents in the case. In November and December 2008, federal agents seized from the home a Ferrari coupe, Lamborghini convertible and a collection of nine other luxury and high-performance vehicles worth about $2.8 million.
Cole, 50, and his wife, Abby Cole, 53, were convicted following a 17-day
trial in Minneapolis, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s
Office there.
Russell Cole was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit mail
fraud and wire fraud, 12 counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire
fraud, four counts of tax evasion, one count of conspiracy to commit
money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United
States, the spokesman said.
Abby Cole was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud
and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and
four counts of tax evasion.
These criminals deserve long stretches of time in federal prison. Pure greed and selfishness. They wanted everyone else to think how much better they were than others ’cause they had all the big beautiful things, and others didn’t.
Take the house, too and everything in it since it was illegally obtained thru fraud.
They one upped your suggestion they took both houses! Sounds like he’s going away a long time.