Detroit Man Jailed for 15 Months in Credit Card Scheme

A Detroit, MI man has been sentenced to a 15-year term in federal prison following his guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose today imposed the sentence on James Lewis Reynolds Jr. in federal court in Pittburgh. Reynolds, 24, of 2610 Hooker St., pleaded guilty in January to participating in the credit-card scheme.

Prosecutors said he was one of several people who left Michigan in early 2009 and used counterfeited, re-encoded credit cards to buy retail gift cards at stores across Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2009.

When police arrested them in Cranberry Township in August 2009, they were carrying counterfeit credit cards and a device used to make imposter cards, according to U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton's office.

Losses to the stores reached nearly $120,000, prosecutors said. Hickton commended the U.S. Secret Service in Pittburgh, Detroit and Ohio and the for their investigation of the case.