For a brief period between January 2008 and June 2009, 19-year-old Wolverhampton songwriter Lamar Johnson was living the high life.  His musical royalties from iTunes and Amazon were sky-high, with Johnson raking in a staggering $780,700 dollars (or 500,000 pounds) in royalties.  As it turns out, those royalties were ill-gotten.  Lamar Johnson and nine other men were using stolen credit cards to buy Johnson’s music on iTunes and Amazon and rake in ill-gotten royalties.

Really, it’s a genius idea.  Johnson and company downloaded Johnson’s song 6000 times, which allowed Johnson to rake in semi-legal royalties for his music.  Granted, they used stolen credit cards to buy the music, but the royalties themselves were legal.  Johnson, who is doing 5 years in jail at the moment for grievous bodily harm, plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud charges in relation to the music royalties scam.

Royalties are a big deal, no matter the industry.  I guess that’s why record companies are trying so hard to stop illegal downloads.  If 6000 downloads makes you nearly $800,000, imagine how much cash a million downloads would bring in!

Tags: Lamar Johnson, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, England, iTunes, Amazon, teenager uses stolen credit cards to buy his own music, royalties, royalties scam, teen steals credit cards to buy his own music, fraud, credit card scams, stolen credit cards used to get music royalties, royalties from stolen credit cards

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