06-29-06 -- Mantovani, Andrew -- Sentencing -- News Release
"Shadowcrew" Identity Theft Ringleader Gets 32 Months in Prison
NEWARK – An Arizona man who was the administrator and co-founder of the one of the largest online centers for trafficking in stolen credit and bank card numbers and identity information was sentenced today to 32 months in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.
U.S. District Judge William J. Martini also ordered Andrew Mantovani, 24, the co-founder of the Shadowcrew.com” website, to pay a $5,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence.
Shadowcrew.com was an online marketplace operated by Mantovani and others before it was taken down in October 2004 by the U.S. Secret Service. The law enforcement action closed an illicit business that trafficked in at least 1.5 million stolen credit and bank card numbers that resulted in estimated losses in excess of $4 million to victims, who ultimately were the issuing institutions for the credit and bank cards.
Mantovani pleaded guilty to the conspiracy on Nov. 17, 2005, for his leading role to commit credit and bank card fraud, as well as identification document fraud. Mantovani also pleaded guilty to a second count of unlawful transfer of identification to facilitate criminal conduct. Mantovani admitted his role in illegally obtaining approximately 18 million e-mail accounts with associated personal identifying information.
The Shadowcrew organization and its associated website was a hub of online identity theft activity, facilitating online trafficking in stolen personal information and documents, as well as stolen credit and debit card numbers. A year-long investigation by the Secret Service led to the arrests of 21 individuals in the United States in October 2004. To date, 18 have pleaded guilty. Additionally, several individuals were arrested in foreign countries.
The Indictment charged that the administrators, moderators, vendors and others involved with Shadowcrew conspired to provide stolen credit and bank card numbers and identity documents through the Shadowcrew marketplace. The account numbers and other items were sold by approved vendors who had been granted permission to sell by administrators and moderators of the Shadowcrew site after completing a review process.
At his plea hearing on Nov. 17, 2005, Mantovani acknowledged his role as co-founder, and administrator of the Shadowcrew website. As such, Mantovani had the power to control the direction of the organization as well as the day-to-day management of the website. He admitted using techniques such as phishing and spamming to illegally obtain credit and bank card information, which he then used to make purchases of merchandise online. The illegally obtained goods were then sent to a "drop" or mailing address specifically set up to receive the stolen goods. Some of the merchandise was then sold through eBay.
Mantovani further stated that Shadowcrew members sent and received payment for illicit merchandise and services via Western Union money transfers and digital currencies such as E-Gold and Web Money. In addition, Mantovani admitted that in September 2004, he illegally acquired via computer, approximately 18 million e-mail accounts with associated usernames, passwords, dates of birth, and other personally identifying information – approximately 60,000 of which included first and last name, gender, address, city, state, country and telephone number.
Other Shadowcrew sentencings to date in New Jersey include:
• On June 28, Judge Martini sentenced Kim Taylor, of Arcadia, Cal., who was a moderator on the Shadowcrew website, to 30 months in federal prison. At his guilty plea on Nov. 17, 2005, Taylor acknowledged that he generated false identification documents, such as fake driver's licenses, and distributed them to other Shadowcrew members. Taylor served as a reviewer of false identifications documents. A favorable written review was a prerequisite to offering such false identification documents, and other illicit merchandise, for sale on the Shadowcrew website.
• On June 28, Judge Martini sentenced Jeremy Stephens, of Charlotte, N.C., who was a moderator and vendor on the Shadowcrew website, to 26 months in federal prison. At his guilty plea on Nov. 17, 2005, Stephens admitted to acquiring stolen credit and bank card numbers from other Shadowcrew members during the course of the conspiracy. The stolen credit account numbers were then used to illegally obtain goods from retail establishments and cash from automated teller machines.
• On June 28, Judge Martini sentenced Jeremy Zielinski, of Longwood, Florida who was a vendor on the Shadowcrew website, to 22 months in federal prison. on At his guilty plea on November 17, 2005 Zielinski admitted to encoding bank and credit card number information onto blank plastic cards so the stolen bank and credit card numbers could be used to illegally obtain merchandise in retail establishments and cash from Automated Teller Machines.
• On June 28, Judge Martini sentenced Mathew Johnson, 23, of Mesa, Arizona, to 3 years probation for his role in the Shadowcrew conspiracy. At his February 1, 2006 guilty plea, Johnson admitted to creating 1,000 false identification documents including: false Arizona, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia driver’s licenses; false health insurance cards; and false college identification cards, and sell these documents to other Shadowcrew members.
At their guilty pleas, Montavani, Stephens and Zielinski all ackowledged that they and other Shadowcrew members sent and received payment to each other for illicit merchandise and services through transfers of digital currencies such as E-Gold and Web Money
Christie credited Special Agents of the Secret Service in Newark, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge David O'Connor, in Morristown, for their work in investigating the case.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin M. O'Dowd of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division, and Kimberly Kiefer Peretti from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.
-end-
Defense Counsel: Pasquale F. Giannetta, Esq., Wayne, N.J.