An Atlanta woman who took part in a scheme that defrauded Amazon out of nearly $10 million was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 16 years in federal prison, the Justice Department announced.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Brittany Hudson received a sentence of 16 years and three months after she and her partner exploited a business relationship with Amazon to defraud the e-commerce giant. Hudson was convicted in March on 30 felony counts involving wire fraud, money laundering, related conspiracy charges, and a count tied to the forgery of a federal judge's signature.

"Hudson and her partner engineered a massive fraud scheme against Amazon, stealing nearly $10 million in just a few months," said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. "Hudson then showed utter contempt for the law by forging a federal judge's signature in a failed effort to defraud another company while out on bond. Today's significant sentence, which must be served without the possibility of parole, holds her accountable for her crime spree."

Between January 2022 and June 2022, Hudson and her partner, Kayricka Wortham, defrauded Amazon through a scheme involving bogus vendors and invoices they created within Amazon's vendor system, according to the DOJ announcement. Wortham and another co-conspirator employed at Amazon approved the fake vendor profiles, which enabled the submission of invoices. The inside access was central to the scheme: vendor-onboarding and invoice-approval controls at large companies are designed to catch exactly this kind of fabricated-supplier fraud, and federal prosecutors have pursued a series of similar insider-assisted vendor fraud cases against major U.S. corporations in recent years.

Hudson and Wortham then submitted more than 1,000 fictitious invoices, falsely claiming the phony vendors had supplied goods and services to Amazon. Wortham approved the invoices, prompting Amazon to transfer approximately $9.4 million to bank accounts controlled by her, Hudson, and their co-conspirators.

The pair used the fraudulent proceeds to purchase expensive real estate — including a nearly $1 million home in Smyrna — and luxury vehicles, among them a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera, and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle. Asset forfeiture and restitution orders of the kind imposed here are a standard feature of federal fraud sentences, intended to strip ill-gotten gains and compensate the corporate victim.

The two were charged federally for the scheme in September 2022. While out on bond, they attempted to defraud a franchising company by signing an agreement to open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta, falsely claiming their criminal charges had been dismissed. Those actions led to the revocation of their pretrial release.

To support the claim, they emailed counterfeit court documents bearing the forged signatures of former Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr. and Cobb County Magistrate Judge Norman L. Barnett, who had been a prosecutor in the case. Hudson also sent fake financial statements with inflated account balances to secure the deal. The forgery of a federal judge's signature carries particular weight in federal court, and the offense committed while on release typically compounds sentencing exposure — factors reflected in the sentence handed down Wednesday.

"The sentencing in this case brings a brazen fraud operation to its inevitable conclusion — years behind bars for the criminals involved," said Rob Donovan, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Field Office. "Our office remains steadfast in its commitment to uncover fraud, protect victims and work with our partners at the U.S. Attorney's Office to bring criminals like this to justice."

In addition to the prison term, Hudson was ordered to pay $9,469,731 in restitution to Amazon. The court also entered a forfeiture money judgment of $7,859,136 and ordered her to forfeit her Smyrna residence and money seized from her bank account as fraudulent proceeds of the scheme.

Wortham was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2023 and received an additional year in March 2026 after pleading guilty to forging a federal judge's signature. She was likewise ordered to pay $9,469,731 in restitution and forfeited more than $3 million, the Smyrna home, and vehicles.