Two plead guilty to mail fraud
PITTSBURGH – A 27-year-old Farmington woman along with her 45-year-old mother from Morgantown, W.Va., pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud each after an alleged scheme hatched by the pair netted them nearly $100,000 in sweepstakes winnings. Sonya Rosenberger, 27, of 3071 Dinner Bell-Five Forks Road in Farmington and her mother, Alanna Ridenour, 45, of 5203 Dorsey Lane, Morgantown, W.Va., both admitted to repeatedly defrauding a WTAE-TV television sweepstakes known as “Watch 4, Win More” in Pittsburgh Federal Court Wednesday.
According to United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, Rosenberger created fake claim forms on her personal computer and then inserted the winning numbers on the forms, using family and friends as the claimants as well as her mother, Ridenour.
Ridenour also created some false claim forms and submitted them in the names of family and friends winning about $12,000 in prizes.
The pair won about $95,000 before federal investigators uncovered the scheme.
Sentencing for mail fraud is scheduled for June 6 at 10 a.m. in federal court.
The law provides for a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.