All those Cellular Island stores on Fulton Mall were no paradise for hundreds of customers who were bilked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in an identity-theft scam.
Mayer Vaknin, who owns eight Cellular Island stores in and around the Fulton Mall, admitted this week that he ran a racket against his own customers.
According to federal prosecutors, between January 2004 and this January, Vaknin and co-workers used credit card information from 900 of their customers to purchase 1,940 cellular phones, which were then resold to unsuspecting new customers.
Vaknin and his pals also cheated T-Mobile out of $500,000 in commissions — some from the original fraud sales and, in a particularly audacious bit of double-dipping, additional commissions from the illegal resale of the ill-gotten phones.
In all, the scheme netted Vaknin’s businesses close to $750,000, according to the feds.
United States Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said the prosecution will send a message to shady vendors.
“We are committed to prosecuting those who misuse [credit card] information for their own personal gain,” she said.
Vaknin’s guilty plea doesn’t mean he’ll get off easy. He’s facing 20 years in jail for the fraud. The 33-year-old has already forfeited a $500,000 apartment in Miami’s posh South Beach neighborhood and a Hummer H2.
Vaknin’s lawyer, Harold Levy, did not return a call.
