SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 1, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The last of six defendants who ran a three-year gas pump card-reader skimming scam was sentenced Thursday to federal prison.
“Emmanuel Dejesus Nina-Perez, 31, of Salt Lake City, was sentenced today to 27 months’ imprisonment by a U.S. District Court Judge as a result of a guilty plea,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah.
“Nina-Perez is the sixth and final defendant in a three-year conspiracy that defrauded gas station customers and their banks by secretly using Bluetooth enabled skimming equipment to steal customers’ credit card information.”
Defendants executed the conspiracy by using Bluetooth enabled skimming equipment that they installed onto gas pumps, specifically, on the motherboard of the internal computer that controls the gas pumps, according to the Thursday press release describing the operation that ran from 2017 through 2020.
Several of the co-conspirators, including Nina-Perez, were either long-haul truck drivers or had close connections to trucking transportation companies who operated fleets of long-haul trucks.
Skimming equipment contains a Bluetooth card reader/recorder that records information — such as the customers’ credit card number, name and zip code associated with the card. After installation, prosecutors explained, the defendants would get within range of the Bluetooth skimming device to initiate a wireless Bluetooth connection at the gas pump.
The culprits then would use the consumers’ information to duplicate cloned cards and use them for purchases. “Collectively, the defendants are responsible for over $200,000 in losses.”
The court also ordered the forfeiture of $38,372 cash seized from Nina-Perez’s co-defendants’ residence in connection with their arrests.
As to the co-defendants, Yarislani Padron-Cruz, 38, a foreign national living in Salt Lake City; Yofre Napoleon Almonte, 50, a foreign national living in Salt Lake City; Iraldo Pereda-Mendez, 36, of Salt Lake City; Jandry Artigas-Reyes, 38, a foreign national living in Salt Lake City; and Yosbel Delgado-Valdes, 44, of Salt Lake City, also pleaded guilty to charges.
Padron-Cruz was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment; Almonte was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment; Pereda-Mendez was sentenced to 39 months imprisonment; Artigas-Reyes was sentenced to 45 months imprisonment, and Delgado-Valdes was sentenced to 50 months’ imprisonment. Each has been ordered by the court to pay joint restitution to the victims.
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