Woman Sentenced To 70 Months In Prison

FORT WAYNE – Valentina Marinkovic, age 19, of  Baltimore, Maryland was sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty upon her plea of guilty on a count of bank fraud and three counts of aggravated identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Kirsch.

Marinkovic was sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $78,120.73. 

According to documents in the case, on or about August 5, and continuing until on or about October 1, 2018, Marinkovic executed a scheme to defraud a federally insured financial institution.  Law enforcement had been investigating several reports of skimming devices being placed on bank and credit union ATMS as well as gas station credit card readers at gas pumps.  Skimming devices capture and store credit and debit card numbers of unsuspecting victims.  The device is subsequently removed and the information from the skimming device is used to produce fraudulent credit/debit cards for unauthorized transactions.

In this case, a credit union was victimized by having to reimburse members for losses exceeding $78,000. 

This case was investigated by the FBI, the Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Corruption Unit along with the Elkhart Police Department.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacey Speith.

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