14 DAY TRIAL // A California man was sentenced to seven years in prison for his activity as the leader of a credit card fraud ring that stole over $100,000 from eighteen financial institutions.
Jonathan Edward Vergnetti, 39, of Alhambra, CA, was arrested along with five other co-conspirators back in May 2010 after obtaining multiple cash advances from casinos in Grove and Tulsa with counterfeit credit cards.
According to investigators, the identity thieves also used fake cards and identity information to rent hotel rooms and buy goods.
In addition to the identity theft charges, Vergnetti was also charged with assault after he attempted to evade arrest at the River Spirit Casino in Tulsa.
The other arrestees, Gabriella Jiminez, Robert Albert Zabala, Barbra Jo Van Horn, Joseph Elijah Johnson and Cree Frances Clapper, were charged with offenses that include conspiracy, possession of device making equipment, possession of firearm, simple assault and identity theft.
According to Tulsa World, Grove police started an investigation into the credit fraud ring after a shoebox with counterfeit credit cards were found in a hotel room.
Vergnetti pleaded guilty on October 27 to aggravated identity theft and was the last one in the gang to be sentenced.
In addition to the seven-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge James Payne ordered him to contribute to the restitution of $114,931.74, which the group have stolen from Merrill Lynch, Bank of Hawaii and other institutions.
Joseph Elijah Johnson, 23, and Cree Frances Clapper, 21, from Oklahoma City, were sentenced on January 25. They said Vergnetti kept 60% of the cash advances. The two received prison sentences of 15 months and six months, respectively.
The number of credit card fraud cases is constantly increasing and the identity thieves are becoming more sophisticated in their operations. Sometimes they can wait for up to a year before misusing stolen credit card information, in order to make it hard for authorities to track down the point of compromise.