Men nabbed in SWAT raid at Broward home ran complex credit card device fraud scheme: feds
Secret Service agents and local police raided a Pembroke Pines home and arrested two men who helped orchestrate an elaborate scheme in which they used a retail credit card device to reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit gains, according to federal documents released Wednesday.
A day after the warrant was served Tuesday at the home inside the Grand Palms Country Club, a judge unsealed the criminal complaint. It details an operation that began in February in which Willan Pupo, 36, and Joel Castillo, 38, used a rented credit card point of sale machine to generate more than $975,000 in fraudulent income, according to the Secret Service.
The legitimate use of point of sale devices is to collect credit card payments for retail transactions.
But, according to the complaint, Pupo and Castillo — along with others not yet named — ran stolen credit card numbers through the machine to make bogus transactions. They then transferred the funds to a bank account registered under the name of the fictitious company that rented the device in the first place, the complaint states.
The duo faces now charges of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
Miami attorney Alejandro Varona, who said he is representing Castillo “on a temporary basis,” declined to comment on the complaint when reached by the Miami Herald on Wednesday afternoon.
An attorney for Pupo was not listed with the complaint. According to Local 10, Pupo tested positive for COVID and was not in court for his first appearance before a judge Wednesday.
Castillo was present in court, where a judge set a bond of $160,000 — $60,000 of which is a “nebbia” bond, meaning a judge can ask for the source of the funds.
How federal agents cracked case
From Feb. 14 through March 13, a sum of 268 charges totaling $975,565.10 were run through the device, the Secret Service said. Federal agents began an investigation after receiving a tip in April.
Within days of the fake transactions, credit card companies began receiving calls from customers disputing the charges, the complaint states. The credit card companies searched for the money in the bank account opened by the shell company that rented the device — but the funds were gone, according to the complaint.
This left the company that rented out the device responsible for reimbursing the money, agents said. The company, which was not named in the complaint, disabled the device and reported the debacle to the police, the complaint shows.
Secret Service agents examined the documents used to apply to rent the point of sale device, including the IP address used in the electronic signature, and narrowed their focus on a West Palm Beach automotive store named WTW Customs and World of Tires & Wheels.
Castillo and Pupo are two of the store’s registered managers, along with two other people — listed as “Co-Conspirators 1 and 2” in the complaint.
As the transactions were being made and the money sent to the bank account of the company that rented the device, agents also learned that the cash was being transferred to other accounts. Out of a transfer of $915,639 to one account, 15 checks were written out to a business called Joel C. Property Investments, the complaint states.
Agents confirmed that Castillo is listed as manager of that company in state records.
Another set of 10 checks, totaling $361,909, were written to a company called Time Pieces Jewelry, Inc., according to the complaint. The registered president of that company? Pupo.
After the original device was disabled, Pupo and Castillo made an application to another provider to rent a new point of origin device, according to the complaint.
This time, Secret Service agents worked with the device provider to place an electronic tracker in the device.
On May 22, undercover agents delivered the device to Pupo’s house in Grand Palms Country Club, which was under surveillance by other federal agents, the complaint states. Pupo answered the door and signed for the delivery, according to the complaint.
They used the tracker to determine the new point of sale device was taken to Castillo’s house, where agents said it remained until June 22.
Agents noted several transactions were made through the device and funds subsequently delivered to bank accounts registered to Castillo, Pupa and the others not named in the complaint .
