Second Venezuelan national sentenced in identity theft scheme, U.S. Attorney says

A second defendant in an identity theft scheme was sentenced on Thursday, several months after the sentencing of his co-defendant.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, Ricardo Gabriel-Plage, 39, of Venezuela was sentenced to four years in prison for his part in an identity theft scheme.

He and an accomplice traveled to the United States in 2017 to steal the account information of bank customers, the release said.

According to court documents, Gabriel-Plage and co-defendant Luis Jose Ruiz Gainza, 45, of Venezuela placed skimming devices and cameras in ATMs to steal the personal identification numbers of bank customers, which were used to create fraudulent cards that were then used to make unauthorized purchases.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Gabriel-Plage and Gainza were arrested in Sacramento County in August 2017. During a search of their Rancho Cordova hotel room authorities discovered a magnetic stripe reader and encoder, skimmers, cameras, and tools associated with skimming devices.

Gainza was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in November 2019.