By Chad Bray
- iStock
The owner of a Brooklyn eyeglasses and sunglasses website was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday after he admitted last year to threatening customers who complained.
Vitaly Borker, the operator of www.DecorMyEyes.com, pleaded guilty in May 2011 to fraud charges and to sending threatening communications. In July, Mr. Borker was ordered jailed ahead of sentencing after five former customers testified about the threats and abuse they allegedly received from Mr. Borker.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan sentenced Mr. Borker, 36 years old, to four years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $ 96,000 in fines and restitution.
“Vitaly Borker was an Internet shopper’s worst nightmare,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. “Borker operated behind the veil of the Internet and aliases to first defraud his victims and then, if they complained, terrorize them with threats, intimidation, and harassment.”
Dominic F. Amorosa, a lawyer for Mr. Borker, said he believes the judge erred in not giving Mr. Borker credit for “acceptance of responsibility” in determining the sentencing guidelines Mr. Borker faced. Mr. Amorosa he plans to challenge the sentence on appeal on those grounds.
The judge determined Mr. Broker faced a sentencing guidelines range of 46 months to 58 months in prison.
In court papers last month, Mr. Borker said he threatened customers in order “to scare these customers away.” Mr. Amorosa, Mr. Borker’s lawyer, has said his client is bi-polar.
Some customers claimed he threatened to kill them or commit other acts of violence, including rape. Mr. Borker has admitted to making threats, such as “I know where you live” and “you don’t know what I am capable of, ” but denied threatening rape.
“I had no intention of carrying out any threats, and I never took any action to do that,” Mr. Borker said in a letter to probation officials, a portion of which was quoted in a court filing in August.
Mr. Borker was the subject of this 2010 story in the New York Times, which reported that he terrified customers in hopes of creating buzz around his website site, and raising its profile in Google .
Prosecutors had alleged that Mr. Borker sold counterfeit luxury eye wear online and often placed excessive and unauthorized charges on his customers’ credit cards. If they complained, Mr. Borker allegedly responded with verbal abuse and threats of violence, prosecutors said.