Eight people have pleaded guilty to using skimmers to steal more than $736,000 from customers at Washington, D.C.’s M&S Grill, Clyde’s Restaurant and 701 Restaurant, according to federal prosecutors.
The participants in the scheme were arrested in April. Five of them were restaurant servers and surreptitiously used hand held card skimming devices to record information from the magnetic strip on customers’ credit cards. They then sold the information for $20 a card to the ringleaders in Maryland.
Those men copied it onto their own credit cards. When those cards were used, the stolen accounts were charged. Once they’d gained control of the accounts, they bought expensive purses and clothes from Gucci and Barneys, and televisions and iPods from Target.
The ringleaders are identified as Joseph A. Bush III, 28; Aaron D. Gilbert, 25; and Erick V. Burton, 38. The three men will be sentenced by summer’s end.
The servers involved in the scheme will be sentenced within the same time frame. They are Jamaal Snowden, 26; Lavell Payne, 41; Simone Carrie Diane Folk, 28; Vasha Monique Carter, 31, and Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, 23. All have pleaded guilty to conspiracy commit access device fraud.
The investigation began more than a year ago when Citibank contacted the Secret Service after receiving calls from cardholders complaining about charges they said they didn’t make.
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Tags: Aaron D. Gilbert, Erick V. Burton, Jamaal Snowden, Joseph Artemus Bush III, Lavelle Denise Payne, LifeLock promo code, Shannon Eileen McLaughlin, Simone Carrie Diane Folk, skimmers, Vasha Monique Carter
These punks need to get the maximum! The only smart thing any of them ever did was confess!
There has been so much publicity surrounding this case, you know these people are going to get stiff sentences. Unfortunately, others will read this and think of doing the same thing, certain they’re smarter and will never get caught! This goes on EVERYWHERE!