Two Chinese nationals, Jiadong Cao, 36, and Xuejun Zheng, 48, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Birmingham for allegedly possessing counterfeit and unauthorized access devices. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.
Court documents indicate that the defendants are accused of carrying out a scheme involving gift cards at retail stores. According to authorities, they stole un-activated gift cards from store shelves, discreetly opened the packaging to avoid detection, and altered the cards so they could later access funds loaded onto them by consumers during purchase. After making these changes, the altered cards were placed back into their original packaging and returned to store shelves for sale. Once unsuspecting customers bought the tampered cards and added funds at checkout, the perpetrators allegedly drained those funds electronically for personal use.
On June 20, 2025, Hoover Police Department issued a BOLO (Be On The Lookout) alert regarding two Asian males driving a Lexus SUV suspected of switching gift cards at local CVS stores. The following day, Pelham Police Department conducted a traffic stop on the identified vehicle and obtained consent to search it. Officers discovered multiple boxes containing more than 5,000 gift cards inside the SUV. Investigators found that most of these cards had portions of their numbers or PINs either obliterated or altered.
The maximum penalty for possession of counterfeit and unauthorized access devices is up to ten years in prison.
The case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service in cooperation with Hoover Police Department and Pelham Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Ryan S. Rummage is prosecuting.
"An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law," stated officials.
