On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, a federal judge in Manhattan handed a 73-month prison sentence to a Bradenton man who prosecutors say spent years blanketing the country with fake web-hosting invoices. Robert W. Lederhilger III, 44, mailed nearly three million deceptive notices that typically listed $180 as the amount due, and tens of thousands of small businesses nationwide quietly paid those bills. Federal prosecutors say the cumulative losses ran into the millions and that the scheme relied on many small, repeat payments to avoid detection. The case was prosecuted in the Southern District of New York.
How prosecutors say the scheme worked
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Lederhilger mailed nearly three million deceptive pieces between 2015 and 2022 that were designed to look like renewal invoices for web-hosting services. Each mailer typically listed $180 as the amount due and asked recipients to remit payment. Businesses that paid received no hosting or other services in return. Prosecutors say Lederhilger personally obtained approximately $5.2 million, while losses to victims totaled nearly $9 million.
Companies, scale and court filings
Court filings and the official case docket show that Lederhilger ran the operation through a series of business names, including Total Host Pro, Web Host Agents and Simple Domain Host, and that he contracted with mass-mailing vendors to distribute the deceptive pieces, according to U.S. v. Robert W. Lederhilger III. The filings state that the scheme induced more than approximately 38,000 payments, amounting to roughly $7 million paid for services that were never provided.
Sentence, forfeiture and restitution…