DALLAS — Henry Lamon Spruiell, 46, of Arlington, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to serve 24 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in January 2017 to one count of using an unauthorized access device, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Judge Lindsay ordered that he surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on July 11, 2017. Spruiell was also order to pay restitution in the amount of $1,139,076.00.
According to documents filed in the case, from June 2013 through January 2016, Spruiell, devised a scheme to defraud The Home Depot, Inc. of money and property.
Beginning in June 2013, Spruiell, or his associates, used a fraudulently obtained Home Depot Tax Exempt ID in Spruiell’s name at various Home Depot retail stores in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere to obtain sales tax refunds in the form of store credits or cash from Home Depot. They did so by presenting copies of sales receipts acquired by Spruiell from both his own purchases as well as the purchases made by others who used identification information that sent these sales receipts to Spruiell’s email address.
After receiving the refunds, Spruiell, or his associates using Spruiell’s Home Depot Tax Exempt IDs, reused the same copies of the sales receipts by repeatedly presenting them to Home Depot retail stores to obtain repeat refunds on the same receipts. Spruiell obtained refunds at 18 different Home Depot retail stores. The Home Depot has estimated the total refunds in the scheme to be approximately $1,122,357.71 as of January 2016.
The United States Secret Service and Home Depot investigators investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Revesz prosecuted.
--DOJ Northern District of Texas