MCALLEN, Texas — A legal Cuban immigrant who has never held a job in America has pleaded guilty to a large-scale fraud scheme using stolen credit card information.
This week, 40-year-old Alexis Acosta Guzman went to the federal courthouse in this border city where he pleaded guilty to the charge of “trafficking in access devices”, court records that Breitbart Texas had access to revealed.
U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez accepted Acosta’s plea and set his sentencing hearing for early next year — he faces up to 10 years in prison
Acosta admitted to buying stolen credit card numbers from Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese hackers to make his own credit cards and use them at local businesses. The Cuban national who has legal status in the U.S. actually wired more than $100,000 to hackers overseas.
Through the use of the fraudulent cards, Acosta was able to dupe businesses out of more than $211,000 in merchandise and services.
Prior to his federal conviction, in 2013 Acosta had been convicted on state charges for credit card abuse and ended up getting a five year probation term.
Agents with the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and McAllen Police began to look into Acosta again in 2013 as part of a larger fraud investigation and through warrants were able to get access to his emails and online activity.
In one purchase alone, Acosta was able to get close to 450 stolen credit card numbers. Authorities believe that Acosta was able to get more than 1,000 numbers during his scheme.
In the court records that Secret Service agents filed and that Breitbart Texas had access to, agents noted that they researched had Acosta’s employment history and learned that the man had never held a job since his arrival to the United States. The information helped prove that the man had no other means of income other than fraudulent activity.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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