WASHINGTON–Three members of the U.S. Army National Guard have been arrested and charged with a scheme to use bitcoin to purchase stolen credit card numbers in order to make fraudulent purchases from a number of military bases.
According to the Justice Dept., the three guardsmen–Derrick Shelton, James Stewart and Quentin Stewart–were arrested last week following an indictment earlier in May.
All three have been accused of using bitcoin to buy stolen credit and debit card numbers online and then use magnetic strip re-encoding tools and software to apply those stolen numbers to actual cards in their possession.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said the alleged crimes took place between July 2014 and May 2015. According to prosecutors, the re-encoded cards were used to purchase a variety of products, including consumer electronics, luxury items and gift cards from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.
If found guilty, the trio could face up to 20 years in prison.