Man sentenced for fraud; Primary victim a Coeur d'Alene woman

COEUR d’ALENE — A 28-year-old Spokane man was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in prison on three counts of wire fraud and “aid of racketeering enterprises,” federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge ordered Travis J. Sneed to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term of 63 months and to pay more than $730,000 in restitution to a victim.

Sneed pleaded guilty on March 21.

According to court documents, Sneed was simultaneously involved in two separate schemes to defraud.

The first involved a home and property owner in Coeur d’Alene who entered into an agreement with Sneed to develop her land into condominiums along the Spokane River.

The homeowner mortgaged her property, and the majority of the money — almost $600,000 — went to Sneed.

He sent the money to his out-of-state attorney, who paid the money into Sneed’s bank account. The bulk of the money was not used as promised.

At sentencing, Lodge told Sneed he was “nothing more than a con-artist” and that he is “continually working in a fraudulent and self-serving manner.”

While this scheme was ongoing, Sneed developed and ran an Internet fraud scheme where he represented that he owned computer components and sold them on the Internet.

Three victims of this scheme lost approximately $165,000.

Sneed and co-defendant Samuel Jones were indicted by a federal grand jury in July of last year in a twenty-two count indictment charging one count of interstate transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises and twenty-one counts of wire fraud.

Jones’ jury trial is set for Sept. 6 in Coeur d'Alene.

The case was investigated by the FBI.