A crafty, millionaire identity thief will spend at least four and a half years in prison after admitting today that he paid waiters at some of Manhattan’s fanciest restaurants to skim the AmEx cards of wealthy customers.
Between 2010 and 2011, some 265 diners had their Black and Platinum AmEx card information stolen by waiters at Smith & Wollenski, Capital Grille, Wolfgang’s Steakhouse and JoJo, all thanks to Luis Damian Jacas, who pleaded guilty on the brink of opening statements in his now-scuttled enterprise corruption trial at Manhattan Supreme Court.
Jacas, 42, of Manhattan, paid waiters $500 per Black card, and $300 per Platinum card. The waiters would take the cards from customers and quickly record the cards’ encoded information using tiny, palm-held skimming devices.
Jacas would use the skimmed account information to manufacture counterfeit cards he’d then pay other accomplices to use in buying Cartier watches, Chanel handbags, and other luxury goods for resale to “fences” who would then sell the goods online.
In announcing the ring’s takedown in Nov. 11, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance and prosecutors with his Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau said Jacas was careful to use his victims’ accounts for only three days, and to ring up no more than $35,000 on each one.
In the end, more than $1 million in watches, cases of pricey wine, and other high-end goods — along with $1.2 million in cash — were seized from storage units and other locations Jacas controlled, authorities said.
Jacas will serve a maximum of 13 and a half years prison under today’s plea to enterprise corruption, grand larceny, and possession of forgery devices and forged cards; he will be sentenced before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus on March 13.
The NYPD, US Attorney’s office, and US Secret Service assisted in the investigation. Many of Jacas’s accomplices — including most of the waiters and waitresses — are still awaiting trial.