New York Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Credit Card Fraud

CAMDEN, N.J. – A New York man was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars using credit cards he fraudulently opened using the identities of others, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Robert Lourenco, 52, of Queens, New York, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez to one count of an indictment charging him with access device fraud.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

During 2015, Lourenco opened 23 credit cards using the identities of three victims he had befriended, two of whom were senior citizens. Lourenco’s victims did not know he was using their identities to obtain the credit cards, nor did they authorize Lourenco to obtain the credit cards. Lourenco used the 23 credit cards to make more than $423,000 in unauthorized purchases.  He also used the debit card for a joint bank account belonging to two of the victims to make an additional $57,000 in unauthorized charges. Lourenco admitted that he knew at least one of his victims was a vulnerable victim when he used the victim’s identity to commit his crime. 

In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Lourenco to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $36,849 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing. He also thanked the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office for its role in the investigation. 

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.