14 DAY TRIAL // A California man was sentenced to 72 months in prison for helping credit card fraudsters launder $2.5 million dollars between 2004 and 2006.
The Department of Justice announced the sentencing of Cesar Carranza, 38, a resident of Long Beach, California, for his role in multiple money laundering operations on Thursday.
According to court documents, using the online handle of "uBuyWeRush" Carranza worked with some of the most notorious identity thieves and fraudsters, to whom he provided various services including e-Gold exchanges.
E-Gold used to be an online payment system favored by cybercriminals until it was closed down by authorities.
The company was found guilty in July 2008 of conspiracy to engage in money laundering and three of its executives were convicted of operating the business without proper licenses.
Carranza's usual role was to receive cash from US-based money mules, deposit it into his bank account and then convert it into e-Gold currency.
He would then transfer the virtual currency to fraudsters abroad, who would use a local e-Gold exchanger to convert it back into real money.
Authorities also claim Carranza acted as a broker for "dumps," data stored on the magnetic stripe of credit cards, which is necessary to create counterfeit copies.
Transactions totaling over $2 million, for which he retained commissions, were recorded between 2003 and 2007 on his e-Gold accounts.
Carranza was indicted on money laundering and conspiracy to commit access device fraud charges in 2008 and agreed to plead guilty in December 2009 to one count of conspiring to launder proceeds of unlawful activity.
According to Wired, in addition to his money laundering and dumps brokering activity, Carranza ran a legitimate business through which he sold MSR-206 credit card reader/writer devices.
In messages posted on underground forums under his “uBuyWeRush" alias, he also boasted selling card printers, embossers, tippers, encoders, small readers and more.