S. Samuel
West Coast rapper Guerilla Black and a handful of associates were reportedly arrested Wednesday (January 16) on charges related to a credit card fraud case.
Details of the elusive hip-hop artist’s latest predicament emerged hours after he got taken in by police.
Compton rapper Guerilla Black was arrested in connection with a major credit card fraud investigation, police said Wednesday. The 35-year-old rapper, whose real name is Charles Tony Williamson, was taken into custody Wednesday morning by local officers and agents from the U.S. Secret Service, according to the Manhattan Beach Police Department. Black and four others were apprehended by authorities who served search warrants at seven locations across Los Angeles County. Black was on a pre-trial release after being indicted by federal authorities in Washington on fraud charges, Manhattan Beach police said in a statement. (Los Angeles Times)
Black initially ran into problems when police arrested him last summer in connection to the credit card case.
A rap artist is in jail after allegedly buying and using thousands of stolen credit card numbers that were hacked from Seattle area businesses. The rapper, known as Guerilla Black, was arrested in Los Angeles Thursday on a 22 count indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Charles Williamson, 33, bought more than 27,000 stolen credit and debit card numbers. Williamson is accused of working with two other men who’ve already been indicted for hacking into computers at a restaurant in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood and a restaurant supply company in Shoreline. (My Northwest)
The scam reportedly lasted from January 2011 to February 2012 and earned Black roughly $150,000.
Williamson’s alleged conspirators David Benjamin Schrooten, 22, of the Netherlands, and Christopher A. Schroebel, 21, of Keedysville, Md., were indicted previously; Schroebel has since pleaded guilty. Prosecutors contend the young men stole and sold the credit card information, which Williamson put to use within hours of the thefts. Prosecutors claim Williamson received at least 27,257 stolen credit card numbers and stole at least $150,000. Williamson is alleged to have emailed instructions to Schroebel and Schrooten, telling them that he wanted to purchase “dumps” of stolen credit card numbers in lots of 100, 500 or more. (Seattle PI)
A detailed listing of charges Black faced also surfaced in mid-2012.
He’s being charged with conspiracy to access protected computers to further fraud, to commit access device fraud and to commit bank fraud. He’s also facing two counts of accessing a protected computer without authorization to further fraud, six counts of access device fraud, eight counts of bank fraud and five counts of aggravated identity theft. (KOMO News)
