A Bradford woman has pleaded guilty in Federal Court on charges that she defrauded a luxury sunglasses company. According to information provided by the United States Department of Justice, 36 year old Erica Hornof of Bradford, IL, pleaded guilty on March 20th in Federal Court in Peoria, to three counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud Maui Jim, a sunglasses manufacturer. According to court records, Hornof had access to Maui Jim’s parts and assembly materials, a lead repair technician for the company. She was alleged, and now pleaded guilty to charges, to have stolen parts of the sunglasses, assembled them, and sold the sunglasses to two individuals. According to the Maui Jim website, their sunglasses can retail between $220 and $320 dollars per pair.
The charges of Mail Fraud involve Hornof having used the United States Post Office to mail the sunglasses while the Wire Fraud charge was the related to the use of the website Paypal for payment for the Sunglasses. Payments made to Hornof through Paypal showed up in her bank account at Princeville State Bank. According to the indictment, the total amount of what was defrauded from Maui Jim was in the range of $100,000. Hornof is currently free on bond but is facing up to 20 years’ imprisonment, followed by up to a three-year term of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine on each of the six counts.
