United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced the indictment of six people in a conspiracy to use stolen debit and credit card account numbers. An Indictment, unsealed today, alleges between March and September of 2014, Angel A. Oramas, Jorge E. Aleman Tsuhako, Vilma E. Fernandez, Anyier Paladon, Elain Cartaya and Yusnel Abreu Lamas, agreed to use account numbers of legitimate credit and debit card holders living in various states within the United States, Japan and Spain, that had been stolen and re-encoded onto other plastic cards. The legitimate card holders had possession of their credit and debit cards; however, their account numbers were stolen and allegedly used by the defendants to purchase merchandise, food, gift cards, and gasoline from southeast Nebraska merchants including Shopko, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Hy-Vee Gas, Cenex, and J.C. Penney in Lincoln, Omaha, Grand Island, Beatrice, Crete and Gretna.

Three of the defendants are charged in a second count of the Indictment with possession of 15 or more unauthorized “access devices”—- the stolen debit and credit card account numbers—- on April 21, 2014. A third count of the Indictment alleges the six defendants used the unauthorized account numbers to purchase merchandise valued at $74,772.50.

The Indictment also alleges a 2004 Ford Super Duty Ford and an H&H utility trailer were used to commit the offenses, and should be forfeited to the United States.

The six defendants: Angel Oramas (42) of Columbus, Nebraska; Jorge E. Tsuhako, a/k/a Jorge E. Aleman (44), of Crete, Nebraska; Vilma E. Fernandez (48) of Wilber, Nebraska; Anyier Paladon (38), of Crete, Nebraska; Elain Cartaya (34) of Crete, Nebraska and Yusnel Abreu Lamas (29) of Grand Island, Nebraska, were arrested at various locations on Monday and entered not guilty pleas at their initial appearances before United States Magistrate Judge Cheryl R. Zwart in Lincoln, Nebraska. The possible penalties include up to 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release after any prison term.

The case was investigated by the Lincoln Police Department with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Marshal’s Service.