SEATTLE, Wash. - He helped run a sophisticated ring, but a dumb mistake helped lead to its downfall. Now, one of the key figures in a multi-million dollar crime ring that targeted gym clubs is going to prison.
On Friday Billy Britt was sentenced at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle to 5 years in prison for aggravated ID theft and credit card fraud. He's the first of a half-dozen ring members to be sentenced.
For as long as a decade, the thieves struck clubs like the Bellevue Bally's. They were experts at breaking off locks and piecing them back together, before customers like Chris, who asked that we not use his last name, returned from his workout.
"They could put it back together so you wouldn't notice there was anything wrong with it," said Chris. "And they just took one card, so you didn't notice anything gone. Left the cash, just took one card"
By the time Chris noticed that one American Express Card was missing from his wallet the next day, the thieves had already made three purchases of high-end electronics.
Ring members had card printers and laptops in their cars that allowed them to quickly turn stolen personal information into forged identity cards with their photos on them, which they would immediately use to open accounts at electronics stores.
That mobile counterfeiting ability is what really helped them propel the scheme, said Assistant United States Attorney Norman Barbosa. "It allowed them to quickly hit the cards, often before the victim even came out of the gym."
Ringleader Gabriel Jang of Renton sold $3 million worth of ill-gotten electronics on eBay.
But the ring made a crucial flub at a Best Buy store several years ago when it opened a rewards account. The card was in Chris's name, but the ring used the actual e-mail address of a ring member. That one card helped authorities tie hundreds of stolen IDs and items to the group.
"They were able then to look at all the different cards that were used to make all those purchases on one account," says Chris. "It was a pretty big total."
That one Rewards card had nearly $500,000 in purchases on it.
