ILLINOIS MAN SENTENCED TO 76 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF DEVICE MAKING EQUIPMENT

Jason Brown, age 40, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced to 76 months in federal prison following his conviction for illegally possessing device-making equipment. Judge John W. deGravelles further sentenced him to serve three years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea and evidence produced at his sentencing, Brown and his conspirators obtained materials necessary to produce counterfeit credit cards, including a credit card encoder and laptop computer. He and his conspirators used a counterfeit credit card to rent a vehicle, traveled to Baton Rouge, and used another counterfeit credit card to rent a room at a hotel on Bluebonnet Boulevard. The true owner of the card alerted the hotel, which alerted the authorities, and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Secret Service responded to the scene. There, law enforcement located a fraudulent driver's license and multiple counterfeit credit cards on Brown's person. A search of Brown's vehicle led to the recovery of more counterfeit credit cards, blank credit cards, a credit card encoder, and a laptop computer that contained 4,176 credit card numbers and associated track information used to encode the credit cards.

"Clearly this was a professional fraudster," stated U.S. Attorney Kurt Wall. "Anyone who has had their credit cards compromised will appreciate that this defendant will spend the next six years in prison for his actions."

Wall praised the work of the U.S. Secret Service and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth E. White led the prosecution.