Texas Men Sentenced to Prison for Fraud Offenses

DES MOINES, IA – On May 7, 2020, United States District Senior Judge James E. Gritzner sentenced Tofyk Ali Oro, age 32, a former resident of Texas, to 30 months in prison for Access Device Fraud Conspiracy, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. On December 12, 2019, Senior Judge Gritzner sentenced Ali Oro’s co-defendants Jose Antonio Hernandez and Luis S. Boffill Figueredo, also former residents of Texas, for the same charge. Hernandez was sentenced to 30 months in prison and Boffill to six months in prison. Each defendant was ordered to serve multiple years of supervised release to follow the prison terms and pay restitution.

On or about October 28, 2017, Ali Oro and Hernandez traveled from Texas to the Des Moines area and agreed to fraudulently purchase store gift cards and other items from various retailers using credit/debit card account numbers they knew were stolen. Specifically, they unlawfully obtained account numbers that belonged to customers of Community State Bank and then encoded the stolen numbers on the magnetic strips of other plastic cards. From October 28 through November 3, 2017, they used the fraudulent “encoded” cards to complete $28,839.18 in sales transactions. On December 19, 2017, Ali Oro and Hernandez again traveled from Texas to Des Moines. This time they were joined by Boffill. The group then encoded stolen account numbers belonging to customers of Bankers Trust on the magnetic strips of other plastic cards. From December 19 through December 23, 2017, they used these fraudulent cards to complete $41,826 in sales transactions in the Des Moines area.

All three defendants were ordered to jointly and severally pay $41,826 in restitution to Bankers Trust. Ali Oro and Hernandez were also ordered to jointly and severally pay $28,839.18 in restitution to Community State Bank. Both banks covered the fraudulent charges made on their customers’ accounts.

This case was investigated by the Des Moines Police Department with computer analysis assistance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.