A former SoCal business bigwig, Jason Edward Cardiff, has been slapped with charges of access device fraud, identity theft on steroids, and fiddling with witnesses, per the feds. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, this ex-CEO of Upland's Redwood Scientific Technologies was allegedly playing fast and loose with thousands of helpless customers' credit and debit cards.
The indictment that a judge let fly on Monday accuses Cardiff, age 48, of ordering his peons to go on a shopping spree with prior customers' financial information, charging up items the poor souls never even basketed. All this went down between January 2018 and May 2018, and he didn't stop there, apparently instructing his crew to trash evidence that the feds demanded for a peek. As quoted by United States Attorney Martin Estrada, "This indictment alleges a blatant ripoff that simply charged customers for products they never ordered." He vowed to shield consumers from such predatory tactics, with a side-eye to businesses that abuse consumer trust.
Cardiff now gets to swap his executive chair for a courtroom dock. At his arraignment, he pleaded the age-old "not guilty," but he's sweating it out in federal custody until his trial is slated for January 23. The legal eagles scheduled a re-heat for his detention face-off this afternoon before the eagle-eyed United States Magistrate Judge Brianna Fuller Mircheff.
Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton crowed about the Justice Department's steely resolve to chase down the thieves fattening themselves on illicit charges to consumer accounts. They're ready to wield every weapon in their arsenal to bring such scammers to justice. Inspector in Charge Carroll Harris for the U.S. Postal Inspection Services (USPIS), Los Angeles Division, hailed his team's "outstanding work" in unearthing the fraud that left Americans clutching at air instead of the products they paid for. Harris hammered the point, "The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is committed to protecting American consumers from falling victim to these types of fraud schemes."
Cardiff could see up to 15 years in the clink for the access device fraud, 20 years for tampering with witnesses and a compulsary two-year imprisonment for the aggravated ID theft. A United States District Court judge has the final say after some legal math with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
Assistant United States Attorney Valerie Makarewicz of the Major Frauds Section, along with Justice Department Trial Attorneys Manu Sebastian and Brianna Gardner of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, are prosecuting the case.
