News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
November 7, 2008
Former RadioShack clerk guilty in identity theft, fraud scheme
A federal jury has found Roberto Valerio, a former clerk at a Cranston RadioShack store, guilty of conspiracy and credit card fraud for helping a former hospital security guard obtain cell phones and fraudulent credit card accounts. The guard, Michael Bermudez, obtained the accounts in the names of Rhode Island Hospital patients whose identity information he had taken from patient files in the hospital’s emergency room. Bermudez and two other former store clerks have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the guilty verdicts, which the jury returned yesterday after a three-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith. The jury deliberated for about four hours.
During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adi Goldstein presented evidence that, in 2007, Valerio assisted Bermudez in opening accounts in names that he brought into the store on Garfield Street, often written down on slips of paper. Typically, Bermudez was wearing his security guard uniform when he went to the store, and he told store employees that he had obtained the identity information from hospital patients’ records.
Bermudez customarily bought multiple cell phones under a single account. He then sold the phones for $100-$150. Valerio received a performance bonus of between $15 and $60 from
RadioShack for each new account. The company was unaware of the fraud scheme.
During the trial, Bermudez testified that he stole identity information of four to five people a day over the course of many months. Evidence linked Valerio to more than ten fraudulent cell phone and “Answer +” credit card accounts. The victims whose identity had been taken would first learn of the existence of the accounts when they were dunned by collection agencies for balances owed on the accounts.
The jury found Valerio guilty of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, six counts of trafficking in counterfeit access devices, and four counts of aggravated identity theft. The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. The maximum for trafficking in counterfeit access devices is ten years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Aggravated identity theft carries a two-year prison term, consecutive to any other sentence imposed.
Valerio, 26, of Thackery Street, Providence, is free on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 3. Bermudez and the two RadioShack clerks who have pleaded guilty, Hector Alvarez and James Hernandez, are also free on bond pending sentencing.
The United States Secret Service conducted the investigation, with assistance from Cranston Police.