Man made lavish purchases at Chanel, Gucci in $500,000 credit card scheme, feds say
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the amount of money prosecutors said was involved in the credit card scam. It was $500,000.
A 33-year-old man bought luxury items from high-end retail stores like Chanel, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent in a more than half-million-dollar credit card scam in California, prosecutors said.
Trace Jevon Jones, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to four years in federal prison on Jan. 31 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said in a news release
From 2016 to 2018, Jones led a half-million-dollar scheme by fraudulently using American Express credit cards to buy high-end goods, the news release states.
An attorney for Jones did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Jones and five others would contact American Express pretending to be the account holder, prosecutors said. Then the six people would ask the company to send them a replacement credit card without the real account holder’s permission, according to court documents.
They would intercept the credit cards by getting the delivery information, court documents show.
Once they had the credit cards, Jones and the others would make lavish purchases of bags, shoes, jewelry and other items at luxury stores in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, prosecutors said.
Jones spent thousands of dollars per purchase at stores including Chanel, Gucci, Barneys, Fendi, Balenciaga and Goyard, court documents show.
He made a $16,647.38 purchase at a Gucci store in Costa Mesa, documents show.
He was ordered to pay $521,128 in restitution to American Express.
Other defendants in the case have been sentenced for their role in the scheme.
- Terry Ellis Jr., 40, was sentenced to two years in prison.
- Davion Raymone Ellis, 32, was sentenced to three years.
- Cherelle Daire Beal, 31, and Miranda Clare Hensley, 31, were ordered to serve three years of supervised release after getting credit for time served.
- Jonathan Randall Ross, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Man made lavish purchases at Chanel, Gucci in $500,000 credit card scheme, feds say."
