NEVADA – A credit card and identity thief and member of a credit card ring known as “Carer.su” was sentenced Thursday to 12 years and six months in prison for selling stolen and counterfeit cards over the Internet, according to officials.
Jermaine Smith, aka “SirCharlie57,” aka “Fairbusinessman,” 34, of East Orange, New Jersey, was also ordered to pay more than $50 million as restitution, officials said.
Smith pleaded guilty in October 2014 to one count of participating in a racketeer influenced corrupt organization.
Fifty-six individuals were charged in four separate indictments in Operation Open Market, which targeted the Carder.su organization. To date, 26 individuals have been convicted and the rest are either fugitives or are pending trial, according to authorities.
“Mr. Smith’s crimes were very serious and justify a lengthy prison sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden. “He admitted that he caused a loss of seven to $20 million involving over 250 victims, and that he obstructed justice when he fled to Jamaica while released on bond awaiting trial. We are working closely with our international, federal, state and local law enforcement partners to make sure that the perpetrators of these sorts of crimes are prosecuted no matter where in the world they commit their crimes or attempt to flee.”
During his guilty plea, Smith admitted the following information:
- In May 2009 he became associated with the Carder.su organization, a criminal enterprise whose members trafficked in compromised credit card account data and counterfeit identifications, and committed money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and various types of computer crime.
- Specifically, Smith admitted that he operated as a vendor on the organization’s websites, using the “SirCharlie57” and “Fairbusinessman” nicknames.
- While acting as a vendor under those online monikers, Smith sold counterfeit credit cards to an undercover special agent.
- Those counterfeit credit cards were successfully processed for fingerprints, identifying Smith as the true user of the online screen names.
- In addition to the sale of the counterfeit credit cards, Smith admitted that he possessed over 2,150 stolen credit and debit card account numbers.
- While on pretrial release in this case, Smith removed an electronic monitoring device from his person and fled to Jamaica. He was arrested four months later and returned to Nevada.