Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the indictment of Lukasz Kruk, 27, and Barry Herndon, 47, for collaborating on a long-term scheme in which they stole and possessed information from 237 credit cards, many of which were used to order more than $840,000 in airline tickets, and other goods and services.
According to documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court, Kruk worked as an auditor for the Amsterdam Hospitality Group, where he had access to credit card account and personal identifying information of guests at certain hotels in Manhattan. During a period of more than three years, he is accused of stealing copies of credit card authorization forms and other records maintained by the hotels. These documents contained personal identifying information taken from credit card accounts, many of which were American Express corporate accounts. Kruk is charged with selling this stolen credit card information to Herndon, who’s in turn accused of using that information to purchase airline tickets for himself and third-party travelers.
According to documents filed in court, numerous records were found in Herndon’s residence, including those which contained credit card information, personal identifying information stolen from the Amsterdam Group hotels, and documents reflecting third-party airline traveler information. Additionally, numerous documents stolen from the Amsterdam Group’s hotels were recovered from Kruk’s residence, which contained credit card account information and personal identifying information.
Amsterdam Hospitality Group consists of eight luxury hotels: Ameritania Hotel, Amsterdam Court Hotel, Moderne, Bentley Hotel, The Marcel at Gramercy Hotel, and Empire Hotel Lincoln Center in New York City, Blake Hotel in Charlotte, and Berkeley Hotel in New Jersey.