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The
charges against Angel Angulo, 25, of Riverside, and Crystal
Banuelos, 28, of Bloomington, were announced on Thursday by U.S.
Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey, where Michaels also has
stores.
Fishman said the conspirators captured customers' bank account
information and personal identification numbers by installing
devices on 88 point-of-sale terminals in 80 Michaels stores
across 19 U.S. states.
With the help of others, Angulo and Banuelos then produced
counterfeit bank cards, and used them to withdraw more than
$420,000 from automated teller machines, Fishman said.
The scheme lasted from February to May 2011, when the defendants
possessed 179 counterfeit cards in New Jersey, and affected
seven banks including Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co,
Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, Fishman said.
Angulo and Banuelos were each charged with conspiracy to commit
bank fraud, which carries a maximum 30-year prison term and $1
million fine, and aggravated identity theft, which carries a
maximum two-year term to be served consecutively.
It is unclear whether the defendants have hired lawyers. Angulo
was scheduled to appear on Thursday in a Riverside federal
court. Banuelos is at large.
A spokeswoman for Michaels did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. The company is based in Irving, Texas.
Eduard Arakelyan, now 24, and Arman Vardanyan, now 26, are
serving five-year prison terms after pleading guilty in March
2012 to defrauding holders of 952 stolen debit cards.
Federal prosecutors at the time said those cards were linked to
the 2011 theft that is the subject of Thursday's prosecution.
Arakelyan and Vardanyan were also from southern California.
The case is U.S. v. Angulo et al, U.S. District Court, District
of New Jersey, No. 15-cr-00370.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom
Brown)
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