Michel Lermos-Hernandez, 40, of Tampa, is headed to federal prison for 16 years and 7 months after being sentenced for masterminding one of the city’s most brazen credit card fraud operations in recent memory. U.S. District Judge James S. Moody, Jr. handed down the sentence today, ordering Lermos-Hernandez to pay $714,383.51 in restitution. He pleaded guilty on March 2, 2016, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The fraud ring operated by planting key loggers on credit card terminals at Tampa’s International Mall, including at a Haagen-Dazs ice cream counter, where devices silently harvested account data from unsuspecting customers. Lermos-Hernandez and his crew used the stolen numbers to manufacture counterfeit credit cards. He sourced blank card stock, embossing machines, and magnetic stripe re-encoders from co-defendant Viviana Reyes, who also bought stolen data from him.
Lermos-Hernandez distributed the fake cards to a network of accomplices—his sister Norma Cabezas-Hernandez, his girlfriend Danay-Crespo Rodriguez, Lazaro Rodriguez, and Abel Osorio-Cuok—who hit retail stores across the Tampa area, racking up fraudulent purchases of electronics and gift cards. The stolen goods were funneled back to Reyes, who paid the crew in cash and flipped the items at deep discounts, laundering the profits through underground resale channels.
A federal raid on February 7, 2013, tore open the operation. Agents stormed Lermos-Hernandez’s residence and seized $14,515 in cash, a laptop, a credit card embosser, a magnetic stripe reader/encoder, a key logger, and numerous counterfeit cards and re-encoded gift cards. They also seized a Mercedes-Benz sedan he had purchased for over $130,000—luxury funded by crime.
The damage done exceeds $700,000 in actual losses, affecting more than 35 federally insured financial institutions and over 1,000 individuals whose personal data was stripped and exploited. The scale of the breach stunned investigators, revealing a tightly coordinated criminal enterprise rooted in digital theft and cash-driven resale.
Viviana Reyes was convicted at trial and sentenced to 12 years. Crespo-Rodriguez got seven years. Cabezas-Hernandez was sentenced to five years. Lazaro Rodriguez received 37 months. Osorio-Cuok, involved for only about three weeks, was spared prison and given five years’ probation. The case was investigated by the Tampa Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the U.S. Secret Service, with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mandy Riedel and Suzanne Nebesky.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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