SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 9, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 49-year-old man who pleaded guilty in a gas-skimming scheme in Utah and Idaho has been sentenced to serve three years in federal prison and pay nearly $200,000 in restitution.
Yofre Napoleon Almonte, a Salt Lake City resident but not a U.S. citizen, was involved in a scheme to defraud gas station customers and their banks using skimming equipment to steal their credit card information, court document state.
Almonte pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. In addition to the 36-month prison sentence, he and his co-defendants were ordered to pay $199,122 in restitution, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah.
“Unlike traditional ‘skimming’ operations that use an ‘overlay’ type of molding placed on top of the ATM or gas pump targeted for ‘skimming,’ Almonte and his alleged co-defendants used a Bluetooth wireless device that is installed onto the computer motherboard of the internal computer that controls the ATM/gas pump,” the release states.
Almonte then was able to initiate a wireless bluetooth connection and download all the digital credit card/ATM card information stored on the device.
“Almonte and others then created cloned cards with stolen information and used those cards to fraudulently purchase over $200,000 worth of gasoline and other items,” according to the news release.
The case was investigated by the FBI Salt Lake City Field Division.
