Defendants used skimming devices and covert cameras to steal bank and credit union customers’ ATM card numbers and PINs
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley sentenced Ricardo Gabriele-Plage, 39, to four years in prison for an identity theft scheme, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
According to court documents, in 2017, Gabriele-Plage, a Venezuelan national, traveled to the United States for the purpose of stealing bank customers’ account information. During the course of the scheme, at least five times Gabriele-Plage and his co-conspirators placed skimming devices in ATMs and installed covert cameras to record ATM users’ personal identification numbers. While the skimmers were in place, hundreds of bank customers used the ATMs. Gabriele-Plage’s co‑conspirators used the stolen account information to create fraudulent credit and debit cards and make unauthorized charges.
On Aug. 5, 2017, Gabriele-Plage and co-defendant Luis Jose Ruiz Gainza, 45, a Venezuelan national then-residing in Mexico, were arrested in Sacramento County. During a subsequent search of their hotel room in Rancho Cordova, law enforcement found a magnetic stripe reader and encoder, skimmers, covert cameras, and tools used to repair skimmers and install the devices in ATMs.
This case was the product of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian A. Fogerty prosecuted the case.
On Nov. 21, 2019, Ruiz Gainza was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
