An ID-theft “shark” who admits to helping a check-fraud ring steal at least $450,000 was sentenced in Manhattan yesterday to three to nine years prison.
Joel Luciano, 30, of The Bronx, helped recruit the small army of identity-theft soldiers, who’d march through the doors of TD Bank branches and open fake accounts based on stolen information.
The crooks would then deposit bad checks from other banks, and quickly withdraw cash, which would be turned over to alleged ring bosses.
The ring traveled out of state in its quest for special no-limit or high-limit cash machines, and in one instance, Luciano drove a bus-load of accomplices to Atlantic City so they could all dip their illegal TD Bank debit cards in the “slots” at the casino ATM machines, prosecutors said.
“He was a shark in these waters, in these trying economic times,” assistant DA Kenn Kern said at Luciano’s sentencing before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Convisor.
Defense lawyer Patrick Michael Megaro called Luciano a working father of two who made only a few thousand dollars in the scheme.
With luck and good behavior, Luciano, who has already served almost a year in jail, may be sprung on work release within 10 months.