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Las Vegas man sentenced to prison For $382K fraud scheme

Posted at 10:17 PM, Jan 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-29 01:17:35-05

NEVADA (KTNV) — A former resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, has been sentenced in federal court to 27 months’ imprisonment and 3 years’ supervised release on his conviction of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence on Yoandy Pou Torres, age 37.

According to information presented to the court, Pou Torres used counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen bank account information to purchase MasterCard gift cards at Sam’s Club stores in the Pittsburgh area, as well as in Florida and California.

During the month of December 2017, Pou Torres and his codefendant, Hector Podio Gutierrez, using an encoding device, created counterfeit credit cards, and then used the cards to make fraudulent gift card purchases totaling more than $382,000 at various Sam’s Club locations.

As part of the sentence imposed, Pou Torres was ordered to pay $382,235 in restitution, and to make payments while imprisoned in connection with the United States Bureau of Prison’ Inmate Financial Responsibility Program, through which 50% of his prison salary will be applied to pay the restitution. Podio Gtierrez remains on bond pending trial.

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Bissoon noted that Pou Torres had committed a significant fraud, and had previously been convicted of a similar offense as recently as 2017.

Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Brady commended the United States Postal Inspection Service and the United States Secret Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Pou Torres.