The South Jersey man who ran an Old City telemarketing-fraud scheme which defrauded some 350,000 small businesses out of up to $75 million has been sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Neal D. Saferstein, 37, pleaded guilty to wire- and mail-fraud, and filing false tax returns last October in relation to dealings at GoInternet. Operating at 20 N. Third St., GoInternet duped businesses into accepting an Internet-service “welcome packet” which left them unknowingly paying $29 monthly. By 2003, GoInternet employed more than 1,000 people who signed an estimated 7,500 new customers up a week, for a total of 350,000.
Sentenced Friday at the federal courthouse, Saferstein was ordered to pay a Federal Trade Commission judgement of $58 million, and a $100,000 fine. He didn’t report $1.7 million of income between 2000 and 2003.
Co-defendants Tyrone L. Barr, a GoInternet vice president, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, while CIO Billy D. Light received six-months house arrest, three years probation, 100 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine.
