A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme over tampering with gift cards, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida recently announced.
Liu Cao Yuan, 22, had targeted about 42 grocery stores across Florida, including in St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties, prosecutors said on Nov. 24. He now faces up to five years in prison, after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices on Sept. 23.
“Gift card fraud schemes like this prey on unsuspecting consumers and erode trust in our everyday retail systems,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement on Monday….