Guerilla Black Sentenced to Decade for Bank Fraud

Seattle’s federal courtroom echoed with the sound of justice as California rap artist Charles Tony Williamson, better known by his stage name Guerilla Black, was sentenced to 110 months in prison for an elaborate scheme that defrauded banks and businesses out of millions. The 36-year-old Torrance native received the stiff sentence from U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez for his role as a mastermind in a $15 million credit card fraud ring.

Williamson, who orchestrated the theft of point-of-sale credit card information at various Seattle and Shoreline businesses, was also handed five years of supervised release following his prison term. U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan praised the investigation that led to his downfall, noting the defendant’s relentless pursuit of digital crime despite previous legal trouble.

“Undeterred by his first arrest and indictment, this defendant continued to direct platoons of co-schemers to use stolen credit card numbers and continue his digital crime spree,” Durkan said. “I commend the dedicated agents who tracked his fraud through cyberspace – using critical skills and techniques to trace both the hacks and the frauds to dismantle the network.”

The investigation began in 2011 following a point-of-sale hacking at a Seattle restaurant and a Shoreline retail store. Two other men have already been sentenced for their roles in the scheme, including David Benjamin Schrooten, who operated a carding website making stolen credit card numbers available for fraud, and Christopher A. Schroebel, who hacked into point-of-sale systems to steal credit card information.

Between January 11, 2011, and February 26, 2012, Williamson received at least 27,257 stolen credit card numbers from Schrooten and other sources. By the time of his pretrial release, that number had exceeded 30,000. The estimated fraud loss for this case is $15 million.

Williamson was rearrested following a thorough investigation by the Manhattan Beach Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service’s Electronic Crimes Task Force in Seattle and the USSS Los Angeles Fraud Task Force. He pleaded guilty to credit card fraud before and after his arrest on the indictment in the Western District of Washington and has been in custody since January 2013.

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