An Atlanta woman who helped turn fake Amazon vendors and more than 1,000 bogus invoices into a $9.4 million fraud scheme has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison.
Brittany Hudson, 40, owned Legend Express LLC, a delivery company that contracted with Amazon. Her partner, Kayricka Wortham, worked as an operations manager at an Amazon warehouse in Smyrna, Georgia, giving her authority over new vendors and invoice payments.
Federal prosecutors say the pair exploited that access from January through June 2022. Fake businesses were added to Amazon’s system, invoices claimed those businesses had supplied goods and services that never existed, and Wortham approved the payments.
Approximately $9.4 million was transferred into accounts controlled by Hudson, Wortham and other participants before the scheme ended, according to CBS News Atlanta.
Fake Vendors Opened the Door to More Than 1,000 Invoices
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Hudson and Wortham created dozens of bogus vendors in Amazon’s payment system.
Wortham supplied false vendor information to employees who did not know the businesses were fraudulent. After the information was entered, Wortham and another co-conspirator inside Amazon approved the vendor profiles.
Hudson and Wortham then submitted more than 1,000 fictitious invoices claiming goods or services had been provided to Amazon. Wortham used her position to approve those invoices, triggering payments to accounts controlled by members of the scheme.
The Proceeds Bought a Lamborghini and a Nearly $1 Million Home
Prosecutors traced some of the fraud proceeds to expensive real estate and vehicles. Hudson and Wortham bought a Smyrna home worth nearly $1 million, along with a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X and a 2018 Porsche Panamera.
They also purchased a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle. The government later pursued the house, vehicles and funds in bank accounts through forfeiture proceedings.
They Tried to Open a Hookah Lounge While Out on Bond
Hudson and Wortham were charged in federal court over the Amazon fraud in September 2022. Prosecutors say they committed another fraud while on pretrial release.
In January 2023, the two were working with a franchising company to open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta. When the company discovered the pending Amazon charges during its due diligence, Hudson and Wortham falsely claimed that the criminal case had been dismissed.
They supported that claim with counterfeit court documents bearing forged signatures of former Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. and Cobb County Magistrate Judge Norman L. Barnett, who had been one of the prosecutors assigned to their case.
Hudson also sent doctored bank and personal financial statements that inflated account balances to support the proposed franchise deal. Their pretrial release was revoked.
A Jury Convicted Hudson on All 30 Counts
Unlike Wortham, who pleaded guilty to the Amazon fraud, Hudson took her case to trial. A federal jury convicted Hudson on March 13, 2026, of all 30 felony counts. Two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 17 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, nine counts of money laundering and one count of forging the signature of a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown sentenced Hudson on Aug. 26 to 16 years and three months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay Amazon $9,469,731.45 in restitution. The court also entered a $7,859,135.54 forfeiture money judgment and ordered her interest in the Smyrna residence and money seized from her bank account forfeited. Federal prosecutors said Hudson’s prison term must be served without the possibility of parole.
Wortham received a 16-year sentence in 2023 for the Amazon fraud. After separately pleading guilty to forging a federal judge’s signature, she received an additional consecutive year in March 2026, bringing her total federal prison sentence to 17 years.
Vendor Creation and Invoice Approval Should Not Rest With the Same People
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has emphasized segregation of duties, independent approval and verification that goods or services were actually received as important controls against fraudulent or improper payments.
Businesses can independently verify new vendors before activating them, including checking ownership, addresses, bank information and tax records for unexpected connections to employees. Changes to vendor payment details can receive a second review before money is released. Invoice approval should also be supported by evidence that the purchase was authorized and the promised goods or services actually arrived.
Transaction monitoring can provide another layer of protection. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners recommends analyzing procurement data for warning signs such as payments approved by the same person who created them, mismatches between vendor and purchase-order information, unusual payment timing and other anomalies.