FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEIndiana Online Identity Thief Sentenced to 48 Months in Prison for Counterfeit Credit Card Conspiracy Involving More Than $3 Million in Losses
WASHINGTON – A Munster, Ind., man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to serve 48 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy that involved operation of an online identity theft business that sold counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen account information, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Peter Borgia Jr., 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. In addition to his prison term, Borgia was ordered to pay $3,138,678.05 in forfeiture and to serve three years of supervised release. Borgia pleaded guilty on May 18, 2012, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In his plea, Borgia admitted he was part of a conspiracy that ran an online business selling counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen account information. According to court documents, the conspiracy utilized multiple online personas in criminal "carding forums," Internet discussion groups set up to facilitate buying and selling stolen financial account information and other goods and services to promote credit card fraud. In these forums and in other Internet communications, the conspiracy regularly purchased or received stolen credit card account information, which was then used to make counterfeit credit cards for sale to others.
In June 2010, U.S. Secret Service special agents executed a search warrant at Borgia’s co-conspirator’s apartment and found a counterfeit credit card manufacturing operation and nearly 21,000 stolen credit card numbers and related information in computers and email accounts. According to court documents, credit card companies have identified thousands of fraudulent transactions using the card numbers found in the co-conspirator’s possession, totaling more than $3 million.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service Criminal Investigative Division and Chicago Field Office, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service from the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Indiana, and the Oak Brook, Ill., Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Michael J. Stawasz, a Senior Counsel for the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
