An Arizona man, Luis Ramirez, 43, from Mesa, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit access device fraud, as announced in San Diego federal court. According to court documents, Ramirez was involved in obtaining and trafficking financial information, referred to as “leads,” for fraudsters aiming to steal money from the bank accounts of unsuspecting U.S. victims. These “leads” originated from payday loan applications of consumers nationwide. Additionally, Ramirez received a separate sentence of 120 months for another case in the Southern District of California, with Judge Cynthia Bashant ordering 24 months of the sentence to run consecutively, resulting in a total of 144 months in prison. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton emphasized the severe impact of such fraudulent activities on the American public, reiterating the Justice Department’s commitment to prosecuting those who sell personal and financial information for illegal purposes. This case is part of a broader investigation into related fraudulent schemes, with additional charges filed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In May 2023, a grand jury in Los Angeles indicted 14 defendants for RICO conspiracy and other charges, alleging unauthorized debits from consumers’ bank accounts and the use of shell entities and “micro debits” to mask fraudulent activities. Another participant, Harold Sobel, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in December 2022 for bank fraud conspiracy. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) led the investigation, and the case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Wei Xiang, Meredith Healy, and Amy Kaplan of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, with support from the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Central and Southern Districts of California.
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