Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Guilty Plea Entered In Debit Data Theft

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Guilty Plea Entered In Debit Data Theft

    GUILTY PLEA ENTERED IN DEBIT DATA THEFT
    By Sean O'Sullivan

    The News Journal
    Feb 5 2009
    DE

    WILMINGTON -- One of two co-defendants in a complicated debit-card
    skimming operation that took in more than $500,000 from at least 70
    victims pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington.

    Artur Harutyunyan, 26, a native of Armenia who is in the United
    States legally, admitted to three counts of bank fraud and one count
    of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

    He faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of
    the charges.

    His co-defendant, Artur Grigoryan, is set to plead guilty to similar
    charges today.

    According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilana H. Eisenstein, Grigoryan
    and Harutyunyan placed a skimmer device inside a keypad at Rite Aid
    drugstores in Wayne, Pa., and on Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred,
    at the checkout counter, allowing it to read and store account numbers
    and security passwords of anyone who used the keypad.

    The two would then return, with Harutyunyan acting as a distraction,
    so Grigoryan could download the stolen data or remove the device. The
    pair then used the information to create fake debit cards to make
    withdrawals from victims' accounts, often at ATMs in WaWa convenience
    stores.

    In the Wayne, Pa., case, Eisenstein said the pair recruited a person,
    identified only as A.S., to get a job at the Rite Aid and assist in the
    scheme, which ran from January 2007 to April 2007. There apparently
    was no inside person at the Delaware location, where information was
    skimmed in January 2007.

    Harutyunyan's attorney, Michael Medway, said his client was recruited
    by Grigoryan and that the two men felt pressure from Armenian gangsters
    to run the illegal operation and turn the money over to them.

    Harutyunyan apparently admitted to his role in the Delaware thefts
    last year but that case largely remains under seal. On Wednesday,
    he admitted charges in the Pennsylvania case, which will be merged
    with the Delaware charges at sentencing in several months.
Working...
X