Florida Man Sentenced To 73 Months In Prison For Nationwide Mass-Mailing Scam Targeting Small Businesses

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that ROBERT W. LEDERHILGER III was sentenced today to 73 months in prison for perpetrating a seven-year scheme to defraud small businesses across the United States, which resulted in losses of nearly $9 million to tens of thousands of victims. In September 2025, the defendant was convicted following a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, who imposed today's sentence.

"Robert Lederhilger stole millions of dollars from tens of thousands of small businesses, $180 at a time," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "Lederhilger thought his large scale, small sum fraud would go undetected. He was wrong. Stealing $5 million $180 at a time got him 73 months. Fraudsters like him should beware. This Office and our law enforcement partners will work to bring to justice anyone who takes advantage of the good people of New York and beyond. Today's sentence reinforces that message."

According to the Indictment, statements made in public court proceedings and filings, and the evidence at trial:

Between 2015 and 2022, LEDERHILGER designed and ran a sophisticated fraud scheme in which he mailed, and caused others to mail, nearly three million deceptive mailers that falsely appeared to their recipients-primarily small businesses that already had websites-to be invoices for purported web hosting services. The invoices typically listed $180 as the amount due. Tens of thousands of victims, believing that they owed the defendant money for web hosting services, paid the defendant's "invoices." Those victims, whose websites were hosted by other providers, received nothing from the defendant except another "invoice," a year later, asking for more money. LEDERHILGER personally obtained at least approximately $5.2 million from the scheme.

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In addition to the prison term, LEDERHILGER, 44, of Bradenton, Florida, was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture of approximately $5.2 million. The Court further ordered LEDERHILGER to pay restitution in an amount to be determined later.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

This case is being handled by the Office's General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Getzel Berger, Camille L. Fletcher, Kevin Grossinger, and Daniel G. Nessim are in charge of the prosecution.