Serial Minnesota fraudster sentenced to 7 years for defrauding electronics manufacturer

Alpha News ^ | 6/30/25 | Anthony Gockwoski

[CFW]

A career criminal with a long history of fraud offenses was sentenced to seven years in federal prison last week for defrauding an electronics manufacturing business.

At a June 23 sentencing hearing, Judge Joan Ericksen commented on how Thomas Thanh Pham has proven himself to be “an efficient and effective perpetrator of fraud” whose crime was “part of a skilled execution of a scheme that he has refined over decades.”

As a result, Pham was immediately ordered into custody because it “was too dangerous and too risky” to the public for him “to remain at liberty.”

“Fraudsters have flocked to Minnesota for far too long,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson. “Pham is no exception. He is a serial fraudster who has demonstrated that he will not stop until he is stopped. Thanks to the hard work of law enforcement, for the next 84 months, Pham will be where he belongs—in prison.”

Pham, a 53-year-old who lives in Burnsville, received his first criminal conviction 32 years ago and has been convicted of numerous fraud offenses since, including in a case out of Texas where Pham used the identities of victim companies to defraud them out of $1.9 million by deceiving them into shipping high-dollar electronics and computers.

[snip]

Pham began a series of discussions with Victim A, in which Pham pitched that Enterprise Products could facilitate multi-million-dollar manufacturing and repair contracts between Victim A and large electronics companies. None of that was true. [snip] In fact, Pham’s “business executive associate” was a fellow ex-convict whom Pham met while serving a prior federal prison sentence for fraud.

[CFW]

In Minnesota, fraud is the career path of choice for both illegal aliens and legal immigrants.

[RitchieAprile]

Slicky boi?

[CFW]

I remember years ago, all we had to worry about was the scammers calling the office with the slick “sell” that it was time to order new toner for the copy machine. They’d often call during the noon hour hoping to get a receptionist “fill-in” who didn’t know any better. We soon learned to warn any new hire or temp to just hang up on those calls. Those were just $500 scams but, if invoices were actually paid by the bookkeeper they were costly to a small office back then.

The scammers have become more sophisticated and rip individuals and companies off for a lot more money these days. And oh boy, do they ever prey on the elderly! We get several scam calls a day at our house.

If they are found to actually be in the U.S., those people are near the top of my deportation list.