Daquan Rice, Credit-Card Cloning, New York 2017

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – In a shocking case of credit-card cloning, two Syracuse men have pleaded guilty to their roles in a years-long operation that swindled victims out of tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise and prepaid gift cards.

Daquan Rice, 22, and Damian Diaz, 26, both of Syracuse, New York, appeared in federal court to plead guilty to conspiracy charges related to their involvement in the credit-card cloning scheme. According to the indictment, the defendants purchased stolen credit card numbers belonging to numerous victims and fabricated cloned credit cards to make purchases.

The cloned credit cards were used to purchase tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise and prepaid gift cards. Rice and Diaz then used the prepaid gift cards to purchase United States Postal money orders, which they converted to cash.

The scheme, which ran from 2014 through 2016 in Syracuse, New York, as well as in Texas and Georgia, has left victims reeling. The defendants’ guilty pleas mark a significant victory for law enforcement, who worked tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 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. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Commandeur is prosecuting the case.

Rice and Diaz are scheduled to be sentenced on September 29, 2017. The wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges carry a maximum possible sentence of twenty years incarceration. Rice also faces two years of mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated identity theft, which must run consecutive to the sentence imposed on the other charges.

The defendants’ guilty pleas come as a relief to victims, who had been left to pick up the pieces after being swindled by the defendants’ credit-card cloning scheme. The case serves as a reminder of the importance of being vigilant when it comes to protecting personal financial information.

Daquan Rice, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire-fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money-laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Damian Diaz, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of wire-fraud conspiracy and one count of money-laundering conspiracy.

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