A Chinese national named Yongjian You has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for mail fraud related to a gift card tampering scheme. U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves handed down the sentence in Lexington, Kentucky.
In the scheme, individuals like You stole gift card packages from retail stores and accessed the card numbers or security codes before surreptitiously resealing and returning them to store shelves. Once unsuspecting customers purchased and activated these cards, the fraudsters would steal the funds.
According to the plea agreement, You targeted several Kroger stores in Lexington, sending the stolen cards to collaborators who compromised them before returning them to him. You then placed these tampered cards back on shelves for sale. You was apprehended on July 8, 2024, while exchanging cards at a Kroger location. A search of his vehicle by law enforcement officials revealed 871 tampered and 998 untampered gift cards, suggesting a potential consumer loss of $419,975. Two packages bound for California containing 2,651 untampered gift cards were also intercepted, indicating a further potential loss of $627,925. The total potential loss attributed to You’s activities surpassed $1.1 million.
Federal law mandates that You serves at least 85 percent of his sentence. After his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.
The sentence was announced by Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Rana Saoud, Special Agent in Charge at the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Chief Lawrence Weathers of the Lexington Police Department.
The investigation involved HSI and the Lexington Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Chapman prosecuting the case.