ATLANTA — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Georgia, Northern), published as received.
ATLANTA – Brittany Hudson was sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison today for orchestrating a scheme that netted nearly $10 million from Amazon, laundering the fraudulent proceeds, defrauding a franchising company while out on bond, and forging a federal judge’s signature on fake court documents.
“Hudson and her partner engineered a massive fraud scheme against Amazon, stealing nearly $10 million in just a few months,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Hudson then showed utter contempt for the law by forging a federal judge’s signature in a failed effort to defraud another company while out on bond. Today’s significant sentence, which must be served without the possibility of parole, holds her accountable for her crime spree.”
“The sentencing in this case brings a brazen fraud operation to its inevitable conclusion - years behind bars for the criminals involved,” said Rob Donovan, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Field Office. “Our office remains steadfast in our commitment to uncover fraud, protect victims, and work with our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring criminals like this to justice.”
According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: Brittany Hudson owned a business that contracted with Amazon to deliver packages. Hudson was in a romantic relationship with Kayricka Wortham (a/k/a Kayricka Dupree, a/k/a Kayricka Young), who was an operations manager at the Amazon warehouse in Smyrna, Georgia. Given her position, Wortham had the authority to approve new vendors and vendor invoice payments for Amazon.
From January 2022 to June 2022, Hudson and Wortham defrauded Amazon out of nearly $10 million through a scheme involving bogus vendors and invoices. Wortham and Hudson created dozens of fake vendors in Amazon’s vendor system. Wortham and another co-conspirator at Amazon approved the fake vendor profiles, enabling them to submit invoices.
Hudson and Wortham then submitted more than 1,000 fictitious invoices for the phony vendors, falsely claiming that the vendors had provided goods and services to Amazon. Wortham approved the invoices, causing Amazon to transfer approximately $9.4 million to bank accounts controlled by Hudson, Wortham, and co-conspirators. Hudson and Wortham used the fraudulent proceeds to purchase expensive real estate and luxury vehicles, including a nearly $1 million home in Smyrna, Georgia, a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera, and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle.
In September 2022, Hudson and Wortham were charged in federal court with defrauding Amazon. While on bond, in January 2023, they attempted to defraud a franchising company, resulting in the immediate revocation of their pretrial release. In an effort to enter a franchising agreement to open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta, Hudson and Wortham falsely claimed that their Amazon-related criminal charges had been dismissed. In support of that lie, the two emailed counterfeit court documents that purported to dismiss the charges and contained the forged signatures of former Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr. and Cobb County Magistrate Judge Norman L. Barnett, who was then one of the prosecutors on the case. Hudson also emailed doctored financial statements with inflated account balances to support the franchise deal.
Brittany Hudson, 40, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced today to 16 years and three months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $9,469,731.45 of restitution to Amazon. The Court also entered a forfeiture money judgment of $7,859,135.54 and ordered Hudson to forfeit her Smyrna residence and money seized from her bank account as fraudulent proceeds of the Amazon scheme. On March 13, 2026, a jury convicted Hudson of 30 felony offenses, including two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seventeen counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, nine counts of money laundering, and one count of forgery of the signature of a federal judge.
On June 27, 2023, Kayricka Wortham, 35, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to 16 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $9,469,731.45 in restitution. Wortham forfeited more than $3 million, the Smyrna home, and the vehicles purchased with fraudulent proceeds. On March 25, 2026, she was sentenced to an additional consecutive year in prison, bringing her total sentence to 17 years, after pleading guilty to forging the signature of a federal judge.
This case was investigated by the United States Secret Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen H. McClain, Angela Adams, and Nicholas L. Evert prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6185. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga
