Every Little Bit Helps

I suppose if you're in a leaky rowboat in shark infested waters and have only a teacup, using it to bail out the water is the best you can do, so you do it. The same might be said for Jacob Vincent Green-Bressler, 21, of Tucson, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for identity and debit card theft. The actual charges were for Conspiracy to Commit Offenses Against the United States (for which he got five years) and Aggravated Identity Theft (for which he got two years), as well as a Misdemeanor Information charging Possession of Stolen Authentication Features.

In a truly international crime, Green-Bressler received the stolen credit and debit card account information for U.S. banking customers from individuals located in Vietnam, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt, Philippines, Macedonia, Romania, Estonia, Kosovo, Canada, Russia, United Kingdom, Panama, Morocco, Lebanon, Mexico, Australia, Lithuania, and France. He used the information from his suppliers in these countries to manufacture and use debit and credit cards in ATMs and ACMs. He and co-conspirators would make withdrawals and then send half of the funds back to the suppliers. They reportedly had more than 4,500 card numbers and wire transferred more than $300,000 to the suppliers.

In addition to the seven years incarceration, Green-Bressler is to make restitution to the banks that were victimized and forfeit the property used and received as a result of his illegal actions. Hopefully this will not mean that he has to begin paying $5 a week after 2014 until the more than $600,000 is repaid. (That would take 2,307 years, by the way.)

This is a teacup at best, but at least there is one less shark in the waters, for a few years.