ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Anthony Danero Thomas, 26, and Raoul Lycorish, 27, from Maryland, pleaded guilty today for their roles in an identity theft ring that involved more than 250 victims in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere.

            Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; David E. Beach, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office; M. Douglas Scott, Chief of Police, Arlington County Police Department; and J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, Montgomery County Department of Police, made the announcement after the pleas were accepted by United States District Judge Anthony J. Trenga.

            The two men pled guilty today to conspiring to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. They each face a maximum penalty of seven and a half years in prison on the conspiracy charge followed by a mandatory minimum of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft charge when they are sentenced on Jan. 20, 2012.

In statement of facts filed with the plea agreements, Thomas, Lycorish, and co-conspirators led an identity theft ring that stole credit card numbers from restaurant customers in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Thomas and Lycorish admitted to recruiting, training, and paying restaurant servers to swipe customers’ credit cards through a skimmer that would record customer credit card numbers. The men used the stolen credit card numbers to re-encode credit cards and gift cards to purchase merchandise, and sometimes returned this merchandise for cash.  From January 2010 to June 2011, Thomas and Lycorish facilitated thousands of fraudulent transactions from stolen credit card numbers throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, Arlington County Police Department, and the Montgomery County Department of Police. Special Assistant United States Attorney Andrew K. Mann is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.

 

 

 

Return to Top