A former Redmond tobacco shop owner was sentenced to 33 months in prison Friday for skimming information from hundreds of customers’ credit and debit cards, then siphoning money, federal officials said.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez also sentenced Redmond resident Hrant “Mike” Aslanyan, 38, to five years of supervised release. He ordered him to pay more than $214,000 to 17 financial institutions that were defrauded in the scam.
The more than 300 victims bought items at Smokers Choice from 2004 to 2006, used their cards and later learned that their bank accounts had been drained.
Read more in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer