Badges - Secret Service Agent Falls Victim To Houston Credit Card Scam
- From: CarlGlas@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 07 May 2011 22:05:05 -0500
This guy should be tied up and giver 50 lashes.
Secret Service Agent Falls Victim To Houston Credit Card Scam
By Stephen Dean
May 6, 2011
HOUSTON -- Federal agents have arrested a man in Houston, accusing
him of ripping off a Secret Service agent based in Washington, Local
2 Investigates reported Friday.
Joseph Russell, 30, of New Orleans, was arrested Thursday on federal
felony charges of credit card fraud.
The convicted felon is accused of using an agent's personal credit
card to make thousands of dollars in charges at gas stations and
Walmart stores throughout Houston and in Montgomery and Fort Bend counties.
"You rarely see a case get solved like that, but this is one of their
own so maybe that's why," said Adnan Hashmi, manager of a North
Freeway Shell station where some of the charges paid for gas fill-ups
within the past two weeks.
When everyday citizens fall victim to fraudulent credit card charges,
some have reported to Local 2 Investigates that Secret Service seems
unwilling or slow to act, but the investigation involving one of
their own agents ended with an arrest in less than two weeks.
"That's pretty fast, because usually it takes a long time," said Hashmi.
Walmart shopper Joann Edwards was surprised at the speed of the
arrest as she visited a store off the North Freeway on Friday.
"Because it hits at home, that's why. It hit somebody that was more
important than we are. He worked for the Secret Service. If it had
been us, or anybody like me or you, they wouldn't have done
anything," said Edwards.
According to the arrest warrant filed against Russell in Houston
federal court, Secret Service agents were notified of the fraudulent
charges on their fellow agent's account on April 21, and immediately
started contacting the Walmart stores and gas stations to view
security camera footage of the person making those charges.
Agents wrote that some $4,000 was drained from the bank account
belonging to the agent and his wife in Washington, even though they
had possession of the debit cards tied to their account.
Houston agents viewed security video and obtained a license plate
number that was quickly traced to Russell and he was arrested while
driving a car that was recorded in some of those videos.
When Russell was arrested, agents said they found $8,600 in American
Express gift cards, many of which were purchased at Walmart stores
using the agent's credit card number.
They also confiscated $1,750 in Visa gift cards and 14 other credit
cards and gift cards, some bearing Russell's name and others bearing
other victims' names.
Russell was already on probation for his guilty plea to being a
convicted felon in possession of a weapon.
When asked about the case or the perception of a double-standard for
how this case was handled so quickly, a Secret Service spokesman at
Washington headquarters declined to comment, saying it is an ongoing
investigation.
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