Southern California Woman Pleads Guilty to Mail Fraud in Horse Sales Scam Case

Source: Various/USDOJ release

Trina Lee Kenney sold a lot of horses to a lot of different people around the United States in the last five years; unfortunately, many, or maybe even most of the horses were either misrepresented or didn't even exist. Reports of her activities have shown up on equestrian bulletin boards or scam report websites at least as far back as 2007. Her 61 recorded victims live in 23 states as far away as the east coast of the US and Canada.

Last week, she agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud after a sting operation in which she sold a non-existent horse to an FBI agent and a US Postal Inspector. The fraud conviction carries with it a maximum 20 year prison sentence. Media reports quote Kenney's attorney stating that her sentence will likely be around three to five years.

Frequently her advertisements, which appeared on major horse-selling websites such as Dreamhorse.com and Equine.com, described specific registered breeds of horses, with high degrees of training, calm and beginner-safe temperaments, as well as good gaits and health. The asking prices were quite low for the horses described.

She advertised using many different contact names and several different business. In reality, many of the horses she actually did sell were bought at feedlots, were in poor health or lame, and in two cases, she painted horses which had been advertised as 'black.' Unfortunately, it appears that many of her victims actually bought the horses directly off the internet, having not seen them in person. In addition, pre-purchase examinations were not carried out.

The Department of Justice describes her further activities:

After receiving payment for a horse purchase, Kenney defrauded customers in a number of ways, including failing to provide a horse, failing to refund monies to victims who received substandard horses, and delivering a horse completely different from the horse the victim had agreed to purchase. When victims complained or sought toexercise the guarantees promised by Kenney, she refused to return victims’ phone calls or emails, falsely claimed that victims had themselves breached sales contracts, and threatened to sue victims for “defaming” Kenney.

After Kenney’s victims posted complaints about her fraudulent scheme on Internet bulletin boards and in horse-related chat rooms, Kenney began using a series of aliases to conceal her identity and continue the fraudulent scheme....

In the plea agreement ..., Kenney also admitted that she lied when she made claims that horses she sold were safe for children and beginner riders. Kenney also admitted that she drugged a horse to make it appear docile during a victim’s examination of the horse, and that she had painted at least two horses to make them appear black, rather than brown, in color. Kenney further acknowledged that various horsesshe delivered were starved, were covered in sores and cuts, had hooves that had been untrimmed so long the horses were unable to walk, or were suffering from strangles, a severely contagious equine respiratory
disease.

She is due in court for sentencing on September 7.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by vickie lawson on September 1, 2010 at 5:03am

i saw a similar thing here in nz last year. someone advertised 2 hanoverians on a sale site for less than $1000 each. it was totally wierd and very obviously a scam. they were going to pay to fly them up from the south island, from a non-existant airport. i was to send the money first. they had photos and a description with training described etc. totally wierd!

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