OKLAHOMA CITY – Five Canadians and an Angeleno were indicted earlier this month on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to acquire personal protective equipment and Oklahoma State University event tickets.
Acting U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester said a federal grand jury here returned a sealed indictment against Steven Mesrop, 29, Carolina Mesrop, 23, Mirna Mahrous Habib, 24, Robert Vinnik, 26, and Katayun Oskoi, 24, all of Ontario, Canada, and Dijon Cornelius Shepard, 27, of Los Angeles, California.
All six defendants were charged with conspiracy. In addition, Steven Mesrop and Vinnik are charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and Habib is charged with possession of 15 or more “unauthorized devices.”
The indictment alleges that Mesrop and his associates operated a scheme to use stolen credit card and identity information to induce businesses to provide goods and services, such as tickets to professional and collegiate sporting events and personal protective equipment, to resell for a profit.
It is alleged that at the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis the conspirators began targeting U.S.based businesses selling goods that were scarce due to the pandemic. The conspirators allegedly used stolen credit card information to purchase items such as nitrile gloves, masks, and gowns and to resell them to third parties.
The indictment alleges the conspirators operated the scheme from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Greece, and Dubai. The conspirators are accused of targeting sports teams and event venues throughout the United States and Canada, including Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Mesrop and his associates allegedly used 21 different alias email accounts and information from 52 stolen credit cards to purchase more than 1,800 tickets to OSU athletic events between November 2019 and January 2020. In an affidavit, an FBI special agent reports that
1,086 of those were tickets to the 2019 “Bedlam” football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
In March 2020 the conspirators allegedly used stolen credit card information to purchase $18,094 worth of toilet paper from a paper supply company in Oklahoma City. Unknowingly, the OKC company shipped the toilet paper to a co-conspirator in Los Angeles, the FBI agent said.
Habib has helped the Canada-based fraud ring to “commit fraud through the use of stolen credit cards at the direction of Mesrop” since at least October 2018, the affidavit claims. She “established email accounts, trafficked in stolen credit cards, recruited friends to work for the fraud ring, used stolen credit cards to make purchases on behalf of herself, Mesrop, and the fraud ring.”
In return for her work, Habib, identified as Mesrop’s girlfriend, “was rewarded with a lavish lifestyle including international travel, luxury gifts, money, and a breast augmentation,” the FBI agent wrote.
Habib received a series of text messages from the Royal Bank of Canada confirming a transfer of money to her bank account, the agent reported. From Sept. 20 through Dec. 28, 2020, she received nine transfers totaling more than $64,000, the investigator said.
As of July 10, 2020, the New York Police Department knew that Mesrop and Habib were living in Spain, where they had traveled early last year to set up a base of operations to conduct their scams targeting European soccer clubs, the FBI agent wrote in his affidavit. However, due to the shutdown of sporting events as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, Mesrop and his associates “failed to see their plans through.”
Mesrop was arrested on March 18 in Georgia, and six days later he was ordered to be detained pending trial. Shepard was arrested in
Los Angeles, Calif., on April 16. The other defendants remained at large on April 26.
If convicted of conspiracy or any wire fraud count, each defendant faces a federal prison term of up to 20 years. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, each defendant faces an additional two years in prison per count, to be served consecutively to a sentence on any other count of conviction. Each count of conviction also includes a fine up to $250,000.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations New York’s El Dorado Task Force, the New York City Police Department, and the Irvine, Calif., Police Department, with assistance from Customs and Border Protection. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Farrior.