Man Pleads Guilty To Online Identity Theft Involving More Than $700,000 In Reported Fraud

PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON – A Brooklyn, N.Y., man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in managing a credit card fraud operation that operated throughout the East Coast of the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia.

Jonathan Oliveras, 26, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in the Eastern District of Virginia to a two-count criminal information charging him with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Oliveras admitted to managing a scheme to purchase stolen credit card account information through the Internet from individuals believed to be in Russia. Oliveras also admitted to distributing the purchased information to individuals in the New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas so that it could be used to make fraudulent purchases.

In pleading guilty, Oliveras admitted to illegally possessing information from 2,341 stolen credit card accounts as well as equipment to put that information onto counterfeit credit cards. According to information presented in court, companies have reported to the government more than 4,400 fraudulent charges totaling $770,674 on accounts illegally possessed by Oliveras. Oliveras also possessed 409 gift, debit or credit cards used as part of the scheme, which had a total stored value of $42,688.

Sentencing for Oliveras is scheduled Oct. 28, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. EDT. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $1,541,349 on the wire fraud charge, and two years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the identity theft charge.

The case is being prosecuted by Michael Stawasz, a Senior Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Dickey of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case was investigated jointly by the Washington Field Offices of both the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI, with assistance from the New York and New Jersey Field Offices of both agencies