$1 MILLION STOLEN IN IDENTITY-THEFT RING; 9 INDICTED 2 AREA RESIDENTS CHARGED WITH MONEY LAUNDERING.Byline: JASON Jason, in Greek mythology Jason, in Greek mythology, son of Aeson. When Pelias usurped the throne of Iolcus and killed (or imprisoned) Aeson and most of his descendants, Jason was smuggled off to the centaur Chiron, who reared him secretly on Mt. Pelion. KANDEL Staff Writer A Glendale man and a Canoga Park woman were among nine people indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. in an identity-theft ring that skimmed skim v. skimmed, skim·ming, skims v.tr. 1. a. To remove floating matter from (a liquid). b. To remove (floating matter) from a liquid. c. bank-account information from debit cards from more than 100 diners Diners can mean:
Zhaklin Babakhanyan, 25, of Glendale and Vanessa Goicoechea, 23, of Canoga Park were indicted June 14 by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana Santa Ana, city, El Salvador Santa Ana (sän'tä ä`nä), city (1993 pop. 129,873), W El Salvador. It is the second largest city in the country and the commercial and processing center for a sugarcane, coffee, and cattle region. on six counts each of money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. . Six other Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. area residents also were indicted on charges that include conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering. ``These nine arrests should send a clear message to would-be identity thieves,'' said acting Postal Inspector in Charge Robert Malaby, whose agency worked with the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is responsible for identifying and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation and infrastructure on the case. ``The Postal Inspection Service will not tolerate the use of the nation's mail system to perpetuate crimes of identity theft. Postal inspectors will aggressively investigate these cases and bring the thieves to justice.'' Authorities allege the ring was headed up by two men, Kresimir Matuzovic, 28, and Nour-Eddine Messaghrou, 27, both of Brentwood. They are accused of providing ``skimming'' devices capable of copying information contained in the magnetic strips of debit cards, and instructing servers at restaurants to steal the account information. Once the suspects obtained the stolen account information, they allegedly created their own fraudulent debit cards using the stolen information. Using those cards, the suspects deposited counterfeit checks into the victims' accounts, withdrew cash and bought money orders, officials said. On Monday, authorities seized a late-model Lamborghini, about $270,000 in cash and more than $92,000 in money orders from the home of Matuzovic and Messaghrou. ``Identity theft is a serious crime,'' said Kevin Kozak, the acting special agent in charge for ICE in Los Angeles. ``Given the stakes and risks involved, ICE will not allow criminals or criminal networks to jeopardize our nation's security to satisfy their own greed.'' The other suspects were identified as Toilin Kelly, 25, of Los Angeles; Kante Kangni, 25, of Inglewood; Juan Deleon, 25, of Newbury Park; and Darr Bryan, 21, of Los Angeles. Authorities were searching for Yacine El Bouri, 23, of Brentwood. Deleon and Bryan were released on bond. The others remained in custody. jason.kandel(at)dailynews.com (818) 546-3306 |
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