Eriberto Ricardo Gomez, 42, and Yasmanis L. Oduardo Fonseco, 28, have both been sentenced to two years in federal prison on their convictions for possession of fifteen or more stolen account numbers and aggravated identity theft, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Donald S. Boyce, announced. Ricardo Gomez and Oduardo Fonseco, are both Cuban Nationals who currently reside in Houston, Texas. They were sentenced in federal court in Benton, IL on March 2, 2017.
The stolen account numbers were discovered by an officer of the Caseyville, Illinois, Police Department on October 8, 2015, during a traffic stop on I-70 in Madison County. At that time, Ricardo Gomez and Oduardo Fonseco had in their possession over 100 gift cards. The magnetic strips on 19 of these gift cards had been re-encoded with account numbers registered to customers of a financial institution in the state of Pennsylvania. During their plea hearings in November of last year, both Ricardo Gomez and Oduardo Fonseco acknowledged that they used these gift cards to make fraudulent purchases at Walmart stores located in Arkansas and Manchester, MO.
In addition to all the gift cards, a computer was also seized from the vehicle that Ricardo Gomez and Oduardo Fonseco were travelling in. When this computer was searched, the FBI found 301 stolen bank account and credit card numbers. An MSR X6 credit card re-encoder was also recovered from Ricardo Gomez’s jacket pocket.
"Unfortunately, these types of crimes involving stolen account numbers are all too frequent," U.S. Attorney Boyce stated. "In addition to their financial impact, these crimes leave the victims feeling violated and vulnerable. Our office will prosecute, and seek federal prison sentences, for anyone who engages in this type of crime in Southern Illinois."
The investigation was conducted by the Springfield Division, Fairview Heights Resident Agency, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"). The Caseyville and Pontoon Beach Police Departments, assisted in the investigation. Walmart’s Global Security Department also provided significant assistance in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Scott A. Verseman.