Richard Nuwintore, 42, of Elk Grove, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge William B. Shubb to one count of access device fraud. The plea was announced by United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner.
According to court documents, Nuwintore used other people’s credit cards without their authorization to purchase airline tickets for himself and others. Law enforcement was able to link Nuwintore to the tickets because either he was the passenger, the e-ticket for someone else was emailed to the defendant, or the e-ticket was for a person who had used Western Union to send money to the defendant. As part of his plea agreement, Nuwintore agreed that the provable loss attributable to him is more than $13,000.
Nuwintore is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22, 2011 at 8:30 a.m. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California