Lucas Pimenta Diogo Das Gracas, Counterfeit Credit Cards, Maryland 2018

Baltimore, Maryland – In a brazen scheme to rip off unsuspecting retailers, two Brazilian citizens have pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges for using counterfeit debit and credit cards to purchase merchandise in Maryland and other states.

Lucas Pimenta Diogo Das Gracas, 23, pleaded guilty today, and his co-conspirator, Diogo Miranda Araujo, also 23, pleaded guilty on December 7, 2018. Araujo also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft for his role in the scheme in Maryland.

The scheme involved using cloned payment cards and fake Brazilian identification cards to make fraudulent purchases at various retail stores. The defendants obtained a large number of counterfeit payment cards, which they used to purchase merchandise worth over $52,000.

According to Araujo’s plea agreement, in November 2017, he traveled from Florida to Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, obtaining cloned payment cards and fake identification cards that were used in fraudulent retail transactions.

Araujo was arrested by a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer who conducted a traffic stop of his vehicle and found approximately 164 counterfeit payment cards, four fake Brazilian identification cards, multiple receipts, and several recently purchased items of merchandise.

Much of the merchandise recovered from the vehicle had an approximate total value of $4,355. The counterfeit payment cards displayed names listed among Araujo’s four fake identification cards and were encoded with compromised foreign credit and debit card accounts.

Araujo further admitted that from May through July 2017, he traveled from Florida to Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois making fraudulent purchases at retailers using counterfeit payment cards. He was arrested on July 29, 2017, after making a number of fraudulent purchases at an Illinois department store.

Lucas Pimenta Diogo Das Gracas also pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit access devices and aggravated identity theft in connection with a separate case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

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