Man pleads guilty to spending $50,000 with Mainers’ credit, debit card numbers

Roberto Lueje-Rodriguez
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff Posted Aug. 05, 2016, at 5:56 p.m.


BANGOR, Maine — A Florida man waived indictment Friday and pleaded guilty to access device fraud and aggravated identity theft in U.S. District Court, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Ariel Perez-Calvo, 28, of Miami was arrested Jan. 13 by Maine State Police with Roberto Lueje-Rodriguez, 29, of Miami, Florida, as the two prepared to return to Florida, according to court documents. They had arrived in Bangor from Orlando on Jan. 7.

Lueje-Rodriguez waived indictment and pleaded guilty last month to the same charges.

By pleading guilty, the men admitted that between Jan. 7 and 13 they used debit and credit card account numbers belonging to Maine bank customers located in Penobscot, Knox, Hancock, Piscataquis, Franklin, Somerset, Kennebec, and Androscoggin counties to make unauthorized purchases totaling more than $50,000, according to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office Friday.

The defendant engaged in similar conduct in Manchester and Concord, New Hampshire, in November 2015 when he used debit and credit card account numbers belonging to New Hampshire bank customers to make unauthorized purchases totaling more than $1,000, the release said.

Perez-Calvo and Lueje-Rodriguez had multiple fake bank cards, each embossed with the name “David Cuan,” which is not the name of any of the victims, federal prosecutors indicated. Each card bore a unique account number and appeared to be an authentic debit or credit card, but their magnetic strips were encoded with the true account numbers of the victims.

The men face up to 10 years in federal prison on the access device charge and an additional mandatory minimum sentence of two years on the aggravated identity theft charge. Sentencing dates have not been set.

The investigation was conducted by the Maine State Police; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; and the Bangor, Brewer, Dexter, Dover-Foxcroft, Ellsworth, Hampden, Lincoln, Millinocket, Newport, Pittsfield, Rockland, Saco, Waterville and Londonderry, New Hampshire, police departments.

Man pleads guilty to spending $50000 with Mainers' credit, debit ...