Henry Williams, Wire Fraud, New York 2023

A Rochester man has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for a brazen scheme to defraud the Holiday Inn in downtown Rochester.

Henry Williams, 55, of Rochester, was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to serve 55 months in prison by U.S. District Chief Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr.

Williams was also sentenced to serve 12 months in prison for violating the terms of supervised release imposed in connection with an earlier conviction for fraud, and pay restitution totaling $5,649.98.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, Williams was on supervised release following a 2016 conviction for bank fraud in the Western District of New York when he began working at the front desk of the Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown in January 2020.

It was then that Williams began using the hotel’s point of sale machine to load and attempt to load hundreds of thousands of dollars onto credit/debit cards that he controlled.

Williams impersonated various hotel managers while making phone calls to the hotel’s card payment processor in furtherance of his scheme.

The defendant successfully stole approximately $4,871.58 in fraudulent funds, and attempted over a period of time to obtain more than $840,000 in additional fraudulent funds.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by Special Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Belongia, and the U.S. Probation Department, under the direction of Chief Probation Officer Timothy Englerth.

Williams’ scheme was uncovered, and he was brought to justice, thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement officials.

The case serves as a reminder of the importance of vigilance and the consequences of committing crimes.

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