SHREVEPORT, La. Dennis Busch, 40, of Costa Mesa, California was sentenced today on federal wire fraud charges, Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced.
Busch was sentenced by United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. to 72 months (6 years) in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to pay $63,045 in restitution.
At the guilty plea hearing on July 7, 2020, Busch admitted to defrauding Capital One Financial Corporation (Capital One) of thousands of dollars in 2018 and 2019. Busch used altered, re-encoded Capital One debit cards to make cash withdrawals from ATMs located in the Western District of Louisiana by entering the account holders personal identification number and selecting a cash withdrawal from the bank account, without the account holders consent or knowledge.
In September and October 2018, Busch withdrew $33,838 from bank accounts of numerous Capital One account holders. In August 2019, Busch used the same manner and means to make unauthorized cash withdrawals in the amount of $28,607 from Capital One ATMs located in this district. He attempted to make numerous additional transactions, but those transactions were denied by the bank. In total, Busch made over 300 fraudulent ATM withdrawals from account holders residing in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. The investigation revealed that some of the account holders had previously responded to text messages that were part of a phishing scam, which compromised their banking information. Capital One reimbursed the account holders and ultimately sustained the loss.
The United States Secret Service conducted the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cadesby B. Cooper prosecuted the case.
-- U.S. Attorney's Office
Source: U.S. Secret Service