United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

FORMER GAMESTOP EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON
FOR DEFRAUDING EMPLOYER OF MORE THAN $150,000

FORT WORTH, Tx. — Girly Chea, a former employee at the GameStop, Inc. corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 15 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper. Judge McBryde also ordered that Chea pay full restitution of $153,899.45 to GameStop, Inc. Chea, 26, pled guilty in March to a superseding information charging one count of fraud in connection with access devices. Chea, who has been on bond since her arrest in March, was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on July 20, 2007.

According to documents filed in the case, during 2004 and 2005, Girly Chea was an employee of GameStop, Inc., working in GameStop’s offices located in Grapevine. GameStop is in the business of marketing computer video games. As part of her duties, Chea was responsible for making refunds to customers’ bank cards when customers returned products that they had purchased with a bank card. The procedure for making these refunds included using GameStop’s merchant account numbers which were issued to GameStop by the banks that processed bank card transactions for the business. These merchant account numbers are account numbers which can be used to obtain money or initiate a funds transfer.

Chea admitted that on several occasions, from October 25, 2004 through December 28, 2005, she made “supposed” refund transactions with GameStop’s merchant account numbers in order to pay her own bank card debts and those of her personal acquaintances, and to increase her bank account balances and those of her acquaintances. The total value of all the transactions Chea made with GameStop’s merchant account numbers during this time period is $153,899.45.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Buie.

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