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Five U.S. National Guardsmen Accused For Bitcoin Scam

Five members of the District of Columbia National Guard were charged for allegedly using bitcoin to buy stolen credit card numbers and make fraudulent purchases at various stores on military bases.

According to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's office, three Guardsmen Derrick Shelton, James Stewart, and Quentin Stewart were arrested last week for credit card scamming, for using bitcoin to by stolen credit and debit card numbers, online. They were also found guilty of buying devices that allowed them to re-code the magnetic strips of their own credit cards with those numbers.

A government release said that, “[The defendants] selected and purchased stolen credit and debit card numbers of individuals and businesses holding federal credit union accounts, and those with billing addresses in or near Maryland. They bought magnetic strip card-encoding devices and software to re-encode credit, debit and other cards with the stolen credit and debit card numbers.”

Two other national guardsmen Jamal Moody and Vincent Grant were also indicted in a separate case involving a similar fraud scheme, where they used such cards to buy at least $2,196 worth of goods, much of them from AAFEES stores, officials said.

The alleged crimes were carried out between July 2014 and May 2015. Jamal Moody pleaded guilty in January and is awaiting sentencing. The remaining four face charges of wire fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit access device fraud. If convicted of all charges, each would face as many as 20 years in prison.

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