3 Plead Guilty to Selling Textbooks They Rented From Amazon

Three Michigan men pleaded guilty to defrauding Amazon by leasing textbooks through Amazon’s rental program and selling them for profit on the internet and through local bookstores, said DOJ Wednesday. Paul Larson, 32, of Kalamazoo, and Gregory Gleesing, 43, and Lovedeep Singh Dhanoa, 25, both of Portage, participated with ringleader Geoffrey Mark Talsma, 36, also of Kalamazoo, in a scheme to create numerous Amazon accounts using fake names, multiple street addresses and multiple email accounts to circumvent Amazon’s limit of 15 textbook rentals per customer, said DOJ. Talsma is scheduled to stand trial April 5 in U.S. District Court in Lansing on mail fraud and other charges, it said. The other three are scheduled for sentencing in May and June, facing up to 20 years each in federal prison, said DOJ. All will also be ordered to pay restitution to Amazon, it said. Efforts to reach attorneys for the four Thursday were unsuccessful. Amazon didn’t comment.