Three Defendants Indicted in Counterfeit Credit Card Scheme

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against three defendants on charges arising from a counterfeit credit card scheme:

Joseph R. Dominici, age 28, of Annapolis, Maryland,
Carlos M. Ledbetter, age 29, of District Heights, Maryland, and
Christina O. Price, age 22, of Bowie, Maryland.

The superseding indictment was returned on September 15, 2015 adding Price as a defendant, and unsealed today upon her arrest.

The superseding indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Brian Murphy of the United States Secret Service - Baltimore Field Office; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare; Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams; Special Agent in Charge Andre Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Chief Mark A. Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

Dominici owned and operated JJ&M Enterprises, LLC, a business based in Annapolis.  Ledbetter worked at JJ&M.  Price was a server at a restaurant in Gambrills, Maryland.

According to the seven count superseding indictment, from at least July 2014 to February 9, 2015, Dominici obtained stolen or otherwise compromised credit card numbers from several sources, including black market “carding” websites where stolen credit card information can be purchased.  Price used electronic devices known as skimmers to fraudulently obtain the credit card information of restaurant customers who paid by credit card.  Price then provided this stolen customer information to Dominici for use in producing fraudulently re-encoded credit cards.  Dominici and Ledbetter obtained stored value cards, used special equipment to encode the stolen account information onto stored value cards and then used the fraudulently re-encoded credit and stored value cards to buy merchandise.

The superseding indictment alleges that on February 9, 2015 Dominici possessed over 250 stolen or compromised credit card account numbers that he purchased from a black market “carding” website.  

All of the defendants face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud; and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison consecutive to any other sentence for aggravated identity theft.  Dominici also faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for access device fraud.  Ledbetter and Price also face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud.   Price had her initial appearance and arraignment today and was released under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Service.  An initial appearance has not yet been scheduled for Dominici and Leadbetter on the superseding indictment.  Ledbetter remains in federal custody, and Dominici was released under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services, following the return of the original indictment.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Secret Service, Anne Arundel County Police Department, HSI Baltimore, Prince George’s County Police Department and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Tang, who are prosecuting the case.