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Lincolnton Woman Pleads Guilty to Credit Card Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft
AUGUSTA, GA—Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that Xao Thao, age 25, of Lincolnton, Georgia entered a plea of guilty yesterday in United States District Court in Augusta, Georgia to one count of possessing more than fifteen unauthorized credit card numbers and one count of aggravated identity theft in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1029(a)(3) and 1028A(a)(1).
Booth stated that evidence at the guilty plea hearing showed that Thao fraudulently recorded and stored hundreds of credit card numbers which belonged to customers of a restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina where she worked as a cashier in the fall of 2008. The evidence also showed that Thao made unauthorized purchases with some of those credit card numbers after she moved to Lincolnton in early November 2008 and before she was arrested by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on November 21, 2008. Booth noted that Thao faces a maximum statutory penalty of ten years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for the unauthorized credit card possession charge. Thao also faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years imprisonment for aggravated identity theft which must be served after any prison sentence for her conviction for possessing unauthorized credit card numbers. After completion of a pre-sentence investigation and report, a sentencing date will be set.
FBI Special Agent Paul Kubala and Investigator Jack Hancock of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation associated with this guilty plea. The government is represented in this case by Assistant United States Attorney David M. Stewart.
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