New Hampshire Man Sentenced for Financial Fraud Scheme Using Stolen Identities

BOSTON – A New Hampshire man was sentenced today in connection with engaging in a complex scheme to conduct fraudulent financial transactions using stolen account information and other personally identifiable information (PII) of victims in Massachusetts and elsewhere throughout the United States.

Jonathan Nguyen, 23, of Windham, N.H., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to a year and a day in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $250,000 in forfeiture. In June 2020, Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in wire fraud, access-device fraud and identity theft.

Nguyen and others involved in the scheme used Bitcoin to purchase names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, email addresses and passwords as well as credit card account numbers, expiration dates, card verification values and other forms of PII. Nguyen and others then used this information to purchase tickets to sporting events and gift cards that Nguyen sold for profit. Nguyen also created e-commerce websites for sham companies and obtained payment-card processing capabilities for these sham companies in order to cash out the stolen credit cards. He used various technological means to thwart the fraud-detection mechanisms deployed by the internet merchants where he made purchases with the stolen PII.  

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Queenin of Lelling’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.