Financial Schemer Sentenced – Over 6 Years for Skimming IDs at Nationwide Gaspumps
GLENDALE – A theft scheme using stolen credit/debit-card information has a Southern California man slapped with a heavy federal-violation sentence. For credit-card skimming fraud at the gaspumps, the Department of Justice (DOJ) U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania has announced that Verzh Movsisyan (43), of Glendale, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $599,000 in restitution.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond handed down the sentence “for Movsisyan’s involvement in a theft scheme using stolen debit card information,” said Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. This financial fraud spanned multiple states, through ‘skimmers’ – illegally-installed devices on gas pumps.
“Movsisyan and his six co-defendants were charged for their involvement in a scheme to steal money from victims’ bank accounts by making fraudulent ATM withdrawals and money order purchases in multiple states with stolen debit card numbers,” said the DOJ.”The victims’ debit card numbers were obtained by members of the scheme.”
A collaboration by multiple agencies – the Federal Bureau of Investigation Philadelphia Organized Crime Task Force, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Secret Service, the Newark, Delaware Police Department, the Borough of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Police Department, and the Bensalem, Pennsylvania Township Police Department – investigated the case.
Movsisyan, the second defendant to be sentenced, pleaded guilty in June 2020 to charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney K.T. Newton. One co-defendant was previously sentenced in March 2020 to over three years in prison, two co-defendants are scheduled to be sentenced in August and September 2021, and the three remaining co-defendants are scheduled for trial in September 2021.
“Skimming is an insidious crime, with perpetrators taking advantage of people just going about their everyday business,” said Michael J. Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.
“The victims of this scheme never imagined that filling up their gas tanks could empty out their bank accounts. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to identify, track down, and take down criminal groups siphoning off other people’s money and personal information.”
