Syracuse Man Charged With Credit-Card Cloning Scheme

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Keith Delee, 24, of Syracuse, New York, was detained without bail following a hearing yesterday in federal court in connection with an indictment charging him with participating in a credit-card cloning scheme, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian.

The Indictment charges Delee with one count of wire-fraud conspiracy, one count of wire-fraud, and one count of access-device fraud. The charges filed against Delee carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

A jury trial is scheduled for July 24, 2017 before Senior United States District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr.

The Indictment alleges that Delee participated in a scheme that involved the purchase of stolen credit card numbers belonging to hundreds of victims and the fabrication of cloned credit cards. The Indictment also alleges that from 2014 to 2016 Delee and his co-conspirators used cloned credit cards to purchase tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise and prepaid gift cards, as well as United States Postal money orders, which they converted to cash in Syracuse, New York, Texas and Georgia

The charges in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspectors, the Syracuse Police Department – Gang Violence Task Force, the New York State Police, and the Town of Dewitt Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Commandeur.