United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

STAMFORD MAN WHO MISLED FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS SENTENCED

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ANTHONY FILIPPONE, age 42, of 956 Hope Street, Stamford, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to two years of probation for misleading federal law enforcement officers about his awareness of a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain and use credit card account numbers through the internet between January 2002 and December 2002. Judge Chatigny also ordered FILIPPONE to pay a fine in the amount of $2000.

FILIPPONE pleaded guilty on May 26, 2004, admitting that he attempted to mislead a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning his awareness of the involvement of Randall Forcellina, Jennifer Forcellina, Philip Lagana, and others in a scheme to commit credit card fraud. Randall Forcellina, the husband of Jennifer Forcellina, accessed internet chat rooms using a computer and used a device to capture the screen-names of the individuals participating in the chat room. He subsequently sent electronic mail messages to the participants falsely representing that the email message was from an internet service provider and falsely informing the recipient of the email message that the recipient's billing information was incorrect and requesting current personal identification information and financial information, including a current credit card account number. Randall Forcellina then created an email account to receive responses to the email message that he previously forwarded. He accessed the email account and retrieved the information provided.

In some cases, Randall Forcellina subsequently obtained additional publicly available information about an individual using the internet. Randall Forcellina telephoned Western Union and, using the credit card account number and other personal information obtained as a result of the scheme, requested that Western Union transfer money to various locations in Connecticut and New York. Randall Forcellina and Jennifer Forcellina then requested other individuals to pick up the money from the Western Union locations in exchange for a portion of the proceeds obtained. The defendants referred to this scheme as "doing a wu." The Government informed the court that it believed approximately $48,000 was obtained as a result of the scheme, while another $58,000 in fraudulent Western Union transfers was unsuccessfully attempted.

Randall Forcellina pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and on June 18, 2004, he was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment and ordered to pay $48,570 in restitution. Jennifer Forcellina also pleaded guilty and on April 30, 2004, she was sentenced to three years of probation and six months of home confinement with electric monitoring, and was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $48,570. Lagana pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit credit card fraud and on September 3, 2004, he was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment and ordered to pay $48,570 in restitution.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Norwalk Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney James J. Finnerty.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov