SAN DIEGO - A San Diego man who allegedly obtained other people's personal identification numbers from sources in Russia and used the stolen numbers to withdraw cash from the victims' bank accounts was arraigned Monday on identity theft and other charges.
Mikhail M. Tuknov Jr., 28, is charged in a 44-count indictment with debit card fraud, identity theft and conspiracy to launder money.
According to the indictment, Tuknov got the debit card numbers and associated personal identification numbers of actual people and distributed them to an unnamed associate in the Dominican Republic.
That individual then used the numbers to encode blank debit cards that were delivered to other criminal associates in New York City, who used the fake debit cards at ATMs to withdraw cash from the victims' bank accounts, prosecutor Mitch Dembin said.
According to the indictment, the proceeds were sent to Russian sources who paid Tuknov his commission and sent new numbers to him to generate more cash.
Between August 2005 and March 2006, Tuknov allegedly provided about 1,044 fraudulent debit cards numbers and 1,045 related personal identification numbers to his associates, resulting in losses of $371,000, Dembin said.
U.S. Magistrate Jan Adler ordered Tuknov detained pending a hearing Thursday at the downtown federal courthouse.
