Tampa Man Sentenced To More Than Five Years For Credit Card Fraud And Identity Theft

Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday today sentenced Moises Linares-Pantaleon (62, Tampa) to five years and five months in federal prison for credit card fraud and identity theft. The Court also ordered him to pay $174,336.22 in restitution to the victims of his crimes. He pleaded guilty on September 10, 2015.

According to court documents, Pantaleon used stolen credit and debit card account numbers to manufacture counterfeit credit cards. He then used those counterfeit credit cards at various retailers throughout Hernando, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties to purchase gift cards and other items. Pantaleon was captured by surveillance cameras making purchases with counterfeit credit cards more than 40 times between 2012-2014.

In April 2013, investigators learned of a debit card breach at the Tyndall Federal Credit Union (FCU) in Bay County. According to Bay County Sheriff’s deputies, 12 account holders from FCU suffered fraudulent charges on their debit cards. These charges were made at Target stores in Pasco County. Tyndall FCU sustained a loss of more than $168,000 as a result of its customers’ debit card information being stolen.  Deputies from the Pasco County Sherriff’s Office obtained video and still images from the locations where the Tyndall FCU debit cards had been used. In those images, Pantaleon can be seen using cloned credit cards with the stolen account numbers from five of the compromised Tyndall FCU accounts.

On December 20, 2013, agents executed a federal search warrant at Pantaleon’s residence. Among other things, the agents seized 25 gift cards, a counterfeit driver’s license, 6 counterfeit credit cards, and a thumb drive containing 15 unauthorized credit and/or debit card numbers. The software for running a magnetic card/writer, a square credit card reader, and approximately $2,045 in cash were also seized from the home.

This case was investigated by the United States Secret Service (USSS), the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Tampa Police Department, the Pasco County Sherriff’s Office, and the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office as part of the USSS’s Financial Investigative Strike Team (FIST). It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mandy Riedel.