Michigan police charged three persons last week who were behind more than 300 fraud complaints that led to $100,000 in bogus charges on member credit and debit cards from the $268 million American 1 Credit Union in Jackson, Mich.

However, the lead investigator of the ongoing criminal investigation, who connected the first fraud complaints to The Home Depot breach in September, said he was frustrated with the credit union's response to issue new cards to prevent fraudulent charges that spiked in December.

In a prepared statement, American 1 said it responded appropriately to the card fraud because the credit union's priority is “to not inconvenience members to ensure that their funds are always available to them.”

On Jan. 12, Tony Hormez, 40, Souri Dinkha, 42 and Rani Markus, 33, were arraigned in Jackson County District Court on one count of criminal enterprise, racketeering proceeds and five counts of illegal use of sale of a financial device, according to Michigan State Trooper Brian Russell, the lead investigator.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Secret Service also are involved in the investigation.

The accused men allegedly used fraudulent American 1 credit and debit cards to pay for gift cards, clothing, groceries, baby formula and other items at four retail chain stores. They were doing 25 to 30 transactions a day, according to police.

Russell said on Dec. 3, when the fraudulent activity apparently spiked, he advised American 1 to issue members whose cards had been compromised.

“When somebody like Home Depot says they got hacked maybe they [credit union] should change their cards out instead of throwing the dice,” Russell said. “I'm frustrated with the financial institution, and the fact that they let this continue on. We told them this was going on and they needed to shut it down and they did not do that.”

Jackson County Sheriff Steve Rand, however, saw it differently.

“As far as I am aware, American 1 acted as quickly as they could,” Rand said. “A lot of people, I think, would have you switch [the cards] immediately, but we all know it takes time to do those things, especially when you have thousands of members. It's not something that you can snap your fingers and have done.”

American 1 serves more than 52,000 members.

Rand believed his credit card with another bank was compromised as well by the same suspects. He also said cards from other financial institutions were compromised, but he would not name which them.

Trooper Russell, however, said all of the cases he investigated involved only American 1 cardholders.

American 1 said it believed police fielded so many fraud reports from members because the credit union encouraged them to contact authorities so that offenders can be prosecuted.

When the Home Depot breach surfaced, American 1 said it had 4,400 credit and debit cards compromised.

“At that time, we contacted our members that were impacted and offered them the option to come in to any of our branch locations to have a new card issued at no cost to them,” according to the credit union's statement. “All of our branches have instant issue machines and this strategy ensures that there is no time where the member does not have access to their funds.”

When the fraud activity spiked in December, the credit union said it again contacted every member who had not yet been reissued a card due after the Home Depot breach and asked them to get a new card at a branch.

“At this time, all of the debit and credit cards have been reissued for all members that were impacted by the Home Depot breach at American 1,” the credit union said in its statement.

Rand said he believed the credit card numbers were purchased by zip codes on the black market. The cards are bought via zip codes to prevent alerts from the credit card companies. The suspects then cloned the cards on a machine that imbeds the codes onto the fake credit cards, he said.

Russell said he expects to arrest more individuals involved in this fraud ring.

Instant Insights /

Michigan Police Bust Card Fraud Ring

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