Michael Hoffner, Sr., 52, of Voorhees, New Jersey, entered a guilty plea today before the Honorable Mitchell S. Goldberg to 40 counts of wire fraud, announced Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.
According to the superseding indictment, Hoffner owned the Brown Street Pub in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hoffner admitted that on 40 occasions between September and December 2012, Hoffner used a stolen credit number to make charges at the pub to credit and debit cards issued by American Express, Navy Federal Credit Union, USAA, ACNB, and the State Employees Credit Union of Maryland. The average fraudulent charge was more than $2,000. The cardholders were not aware of and did not authorize these transactions. The proceeds of these transactions, more than $87,000, and went into an account that Hoffner controlled.
The defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 800 years in prison, a $10,000,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. The Court has not yet set a sentencing date.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David J. Ignall and Christopher J. Mannion.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
