A West Hartford man has been indicted on charges in connection to a multi-state scheme defrauding Home Depot of nearly $300,000.
The U.S. Department of Justice said 26-year-old Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota faces charges including conspiracy and wire fraud. Officials say he's accused of defrauding Home Depot of approximately $297,332 in eight states.
Court documents say that between June 2021 to February 2022, Costa-Mota executed non-receipted return fraud schemes at more than two dozen stores located primarily in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He is also accused of stealing from locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine and Maryland.
Authorities said Costa-Mota allegedly entered stores empty-handed and dressed to appear like a contractor. He then collected Andersen doors, which he brought to each store's service department and made non-receipted returns.
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The U.S. Department of Justice said he would be given store credit that was later redeemed at other stores, mainly located in Connecticut.
When some of the stores refused to accept the receipt less return, Costa-Mota would leave the stores with the products and without paying for them, officials said, and he would then return the stolen products at other stores for store credit.
Officials believe Costa-Mota received about 370 fraudulent store credits. A federal grand jury in Providence returned an indictment on July 26 and Costa-Mota was arraigned on Aug. 1.
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The case remains under investigation.
