SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Michael Stephen Moynihan, 27, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 to a scheme to defraud individuals of money and property throughout the county, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

This case is the product of an investigation by the United States Secret Service, the Placer County Sheriff’s Department, the El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff’s Department, and the Dauphin County (Pennsylvania) Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon is prosecuting the case.

According to the plea agreement, between March 2011 and May 2012, Moynihan engaged in a variety of activities to defraud victims of a total of $30,000 to $70,000 using cell phones and computers. Based in California, Moynihan defrauded victims in Colorado, Mississippi, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Washington, Kansas, California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Arizona, Maine, and Indiana.

Moynihan acquired personal information about individuals. Moynihan then used the information that he fraudulently obtained to acquire the authorization codes from Green Dot MoneyPak cards and other access devices. After acquiring these numbers from his victims, Moynihan then transferred money from the victims’ Green Dot cards to his own accounts for his personal use.

Moynihan is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Mendez on November 6, 2012. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a three-year term of supervised release. 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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