Suburban mother admits to stealing thousands of credit card numbers
August 03, 2015
Like many before her, Y. Pardo fled Havana and found a good life in South Florida.
In 2004, Pardo and her husband built a four-bedroom home located in Homestead. The couple went on to have three sons, who loved to laugh and play outside by the family's pool. In 2009, Pardo discovered that she had a knack and passion for cake-making.
In December of 2009, Pardo created an exquisite cake with a blue crown for her son's first birthday. In 2010, she took a professional course and learned how to bake cakes, including ones in the shape of cute jungle animals and realistic flowers.
Her final project for the course was an elaborate five-layer wedding cake topped with a rose bouquet that begged to be replicated. That summer, Pardo opened her own cake business, Cake Fantasies and began taking orders.
Unfortunately, her cake business didn't last long. Within months, Pardo and her husband declared bankruptcy and a few years later, the cake maker was operating an entirely different kind of business: illegal counterfeiting.
In April of 2013, Pardo was caught using a fake credit card at a Pep Boys in North Miami. A few months later, on a search warrant, the federal authorities searched the trunk of Pardo's car and found evidence of an enormous one-woman counterfeiting operation complete with dozens of fake driver's licenses, Social Security cards, debit cards, and tax information.
The suburban mother of three had more than 1,300 illicit numbers, and not all were from living victims. The authorities also seized numerous printouts of death records, Social Security numbers of deceased individuals, and a laptop with 4,000 death records on its search results, along with evidence that the 40-year-old wife and mother subscribed to various "fraud programs."
On June 25, she pleaded guilty to multiple charges relating to her scam, including one count of possessing counterfeit access devices, which carries up to 15 years. Her plea deal included turning over her Toshiba laptop and the $200,000 that she profited through her scam.
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