BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr., announced today that Giosdeivy Duarte Torresilla, 31, of Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, and a fine of $1,000,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Bonanno, who is handling the case, stated that in January 2017, the defendant traveled with four co-conspirators from Miami, Florida, to Hamburg, NY. Torresilla then provided his co-conspirators with numerous counterfeit access devices, which consisted of gift cards that the defendant had re-encoded with account numbers for actual credit card or debit card accounts at multiple financial institutions, including banks and credit unions. Torresilla obtained the account numbers unlawfully by “skimming” them from payment terminals at gas station pumps. The co-conspirators used 129 different counterfeit access devices to purchase gift cards at various Walmart stores in Erie, Niagara, and Orleans Counties. After purchasing the legitimate Walmart gift cards, the co-conspirators sent the gift card numbers to a co-conspirator in Miami, Florida. The gift cards were worth $120,689.02.
The plea is the result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Acting Thomas A. Braun.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 6, 2021, at 3:30 p.m. before Judge Geraci.
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