Fraud is a serious crime and may be punishable by fines or imprisonment. A New Jersey couple recently pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding the Kohl’s Cash rewards program of more than a half million dollars by creating a computer program to steal cash certificate numbers belonging to customers. The husband and wife team stole Kohl’s cash certificate numbers, using them to buy merchandise which they either kept, sold or gifted. The couple also sold the numbers to others.
Not surprisingly, the scheme was exposed when Kohl’s customers started complaining that they were not able to redeem their $10 cash rewards certificates. The FBI launched an investigation discovering that the defendants had likely seized the Kohl’s Cash certificate numbers by using an automated computer process that located, identified and provided certificate bar code and PIN numbers in a sequential manner allowing the couple to score a huge bounty.
After pleading guilty Wednesday, the couple’s sentencing was set for January. The husband and mastermind of the fraud, is facing up to a decade in prison and has agreed to pay nearly 600K in restitution. He remains behind bars. The wife will likely be sentenced to less than a year for her more limited role in the theft and has been freed on bond.
Theft crimes can run the gamut and are more prevalent with the advancement of, and access to, computer and internet technologies. Shoplifting, property crimes, possession of stolen property, identity theft, and white collar crimes of employment theft, embezzlement, bad checks and forgery are crimes with serious consequences. The Law Offices of Andrew Ladd LLC defends clients against a wide range of theft crime charges in the Milwaukee Wisconsin area. If you have been charged with a theft crime, contact our criminal defense lawyers for experienced help today.
Source: Wisconsin Journal Sentinal, New Jersey Couple Plead Guilty to Scamming Kohl’s Cash Rewards Program, JOhn Diedrich, October 29, 2015.
