Former Southern California Business Owner Charged with Access Device Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft and Witness Tampering

LOS ANGELES – A former Inland Empire resident who was the chief executive officer of an Upland business has been charged with causing unauthorized charges to be placed on thousands of consumer credit and debit card accounts, the Justice Department announced today.

Jason Edward Thomas Cardiff, 48, formerly of Upland, is charged with access device fraud, aggravated identity theft and two counts of witness tampering. A four-count indictment was unsealed Monday at Cardiff’s arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Cardiff, who is currently in federal custody, is scheduled to appear this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Brianna Fuller Mircheff for a continued hearing on the government’s motion to have him detained pending trial.

The indictment alleges that Cardiff owned and operated Redwood Scientific Technologies, which sold various homeopathic thin film strip products to consumers. Between January 2018 and May 2018, Cardiff directed his employees to use the credit and debit card information associated with previous customers to charge for additional products that those customers had not ordered. The indictment further alleges that Cardiff ordered employees to destroy documents that were responsive to a Federal Trade Commission Civil Investigative Demand.

“This indictment alleges a blatant ripoff that simply charged customers for products they never ordered,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “We will remain vigilant to protect consumers from predatory businesses that exploit the trust placed in them by consumers.”

“These charges reflect the department’s commitment to investigate unauthorized charges imposed on consumer accounts and hold criminals accountable for their wrongdoing,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department will use all of the tools at its disposal to prosecute such schemes.”

“The outstanding work by postal inspectors in this investigation uncovered a fraud scheme, where American consumers never received the products for which they were billed,” said Inspector in Charge Carroll Harris for the U.S. Postal Inspection Services (USPIS), Los Angeles Division. “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is committed to protecting American consumers from falling victim to these types of fraud schemes.”

At his arraignment on Monday, Cardiff was ordered to stand trial on January 23.

An indictment is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Cardiff would face a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years for access device fraud, 20 years for witness tampering and a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment for aggravated identity theft. A United States District Court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

USPIS is investigating the case.

Assistant United States Attorney Valerie Makarewicz of the Major Frauds Section, along with Justice Department Trial Attorneys Manu Sebastian and Brianna Gardner of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, are prosecuting the case.