United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner
Eastern District of California
Bakersfield Resident Sentenced For Conspiring To Use Unauthorized Credit Card Account Numbers
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | CONTACT: Lauren Horwood |
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April 2, 2012 |
PHONE: (916) 554-2706 |
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www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae |
usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov |
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Docket #: 1:11-cr-174-AWI |
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FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii sentenced Jorge Palenzuela, 43, of Bakersfield, today to one year and one day in prison for conspiring to use unauthorized access devices.
According to court documents, between July 2010 and August 2010, Palenzuela and co-defendants Yuri Perez Machado, 39, of Delano, and Jairo Fernandez, 27, of Bakersfield, conspired to obtain credit card account numbers by opening accounts with large, nationally recognized home improvement stores. In order to obtain the credit card account numbers, Palenzuela and his co-conspirators filled out credit card applications falsely claiming to be agents of a business entity applying for a credit card account. To substantiate their claims, they created false public incorporation documents listing Palenzuela or a co-conspirator as an officer or authorized agent of the business entity. Once a credit card account number was obtained from the home improvement stores, they used them to buy goods there. Palenzuela and his co-conspirators obtained accounts not only in the Eastern District of California but in Kansas, Texas, Northern and Southern California, and elsewhere. Between July 2010 and August 2010, Palenzuela and his co-conspirators purchased approximately $70,464 worth of goods.
This case is the product of an investigation by the United States Secret Service with assistance from the Bakersfield Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Henry Z. Carbajal III and Stanley A. Boone prosecuted the case.
On January 9, 2012, Fernandez was sentenced by Judge Ishii to five years in prison, and Machado pleaded guilty to the conspiracy on March 19, 2012. Machado is scheduled for sentencing before Judge Ishii on June 11, 2012. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
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