An ID-theft “shark” — who admittedly helped a check-fraud ring steal at least $450,000 — was sentenced to three-to-nine years prison in Manhattan today.
Joel Luciano, 30, of the Bronx, helped recruit the small army of identity schleppers who’d march through the doors of TD Bank branches and open fake accounts based on stolen information. The schleppers would then deposit bad checks from other banks, and later quickly withdraw cash, which would be turned over to alleged ring bosses.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
The ring traveled out of state in their quest for special no-limit or high-limit cash machines, and in one instance Luciano drove a bus-load of accomplices to Atlantic City so they could all dip their illegal TD Bank debit cards in the “slots” at the casino ATM machines, prosecutors said.
“He was a shark in these waters, in these trying economic times,” assistant district attorney Kenn Kern said at Luciano’s sentencing before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Convisor.
“Today, a ringleader is headed to prison,” DA Cyrus Vance said in a written statement, in which he credited investigators with his Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau with busting the ring.
Defense lawyer Patrick Michael Megaro called Luciano a working father of two who made only a few thousand dollars in the scheme. With luck and good behavior, Luciano — who has already served almost a year in jail — may be released on work release within ten months.
