BOISE - Brooke Ashley Darby, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas, pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft for her role in a credit card fraud scheme that targeted local retailers in June 2015, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.
According to the plea agreement, Darby traveled to the District of Idaho, along with her co-defendant, for the purpose of making fraudulent purchases of gift cards and merchandise from retail stores, using stolen credit card numbers encoded onto stock gift cards. Darby admitted to obtaining the stock gift cards encoded with unauthorized credit card numbers, and making purchases at retail stores on June 23 and June 24, 2015. In all, Darby admitted that, together, she and her co-defendant purchased approximately $13,095.90 in gift cards and merchandise with the fraudulently encoded gift cards. Upon her arrest, Darby and her co-defendant were found in possession of approximately 250 gift cards encoded with unauthorized credit card numbers. As part of her plea, Darby also agreed to forfeit a sum of money equivalent to the proceeds in gift cards and merchandise obtained by virtue of the charged offenses.
Wire Fraud is punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a term of supervised release of not more than three years, and a $100 special assessment. Aggravated identity theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of two years, a term of supervised release of not more than one year, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $100. Sentencing is set for Jan. 25, 2016, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Boise Police Department.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
