Athens — Several months of investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies in East Texas has resulted in the indictment of four Henderson County residents in a wide spread credit card fraud ring.

Representatives of the U.S. Secret Service office and several other departments gathered in Tyler, Wednesday, to announce  the indictments that grew out of a probe into more than 6,500 instances of identity theft.

Federal indictments were returned this week against:

• Nathan Paul Michael, 30, of Malakoff

• Christopher Scott Michael, 24, of Malakoff

• Elizabeth Anne Pickrell, Chandler

• Corey Lee Davis, 39, Malakoff

Tyler Police Department reports said the federal grand jury indicted each suspect on eight counts, including access device fraud and conspiracy, and federal arrest warrants were issued.  Christopher Michael, Pickrell and Davis have been arrested and placed in Federal holding. Pickrell has since bonded out.   

 Nathan Paul Michael's federal warrant is still outstanding. Authorities said he could be hiding in Kaufman County, possibly driving a black 2000 Cadillac Escalade, Texas license plate FKS-582.

Athens Police Department Investigator Corporal James Bonnette said, the Secret Service was notified when the investigating agencies determined that the ring’s activities spanned more than just a couple of counties.

“Federal law enforcement has a lot more resources that they can come in an assist us with in cases like this,” Bonnette said. “The magnitude of what we were looking at and the potential loss created a situation that we felt met the criteria for federal prosecution.”

The indictment alleges that the four suspects obtained goods and services by using fraudulently obtained credit card account numbers to produce counterfeit cards. Victim account numbers were obtained from internet sources or from access devices without knowledge or consent of the account holders.  

Bonnette said many of the transactions were made in the WalMart in Athens, but so far, the investigation has not revealed any Henderson County residents whose credit card information has been stolen by the ring.

Pickrell, while an employee of a Tyler Chicken Express, allegedly obtained hundreds of victims' card account numbers with an access device used on the job. More than 500 accounts were compromised in Tyler, TPD reports said. Bonnette said Pickrell would take the cards, move out of sight of the customer, then take down the information.

When Nathan and Christopher Michael got stolen card numbers, according to the indictment, they used them to manufacture counterfeit cards for use at merchant locations. Davis used or facilitated the use of fraudulent cards provided by Nathan and Christopher Michael at the various merchant victims. Property including cash value cards was fraudulently purchased. The merchants victimized were located throughout East Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro-Plex area.  

Bonnette said the offenses listed in the investigation began in March. He became involved in July, after receiving faxes from Smith County concerning offenses that took place at the Athens WalMart.  

“When I received the faxes, I had a couple of cases on my desk that had the same MO,” Bonnette said. “I started putting two and two together that these cases probably involved the same people.”

Bonnette and Tyler began to collaborate on the case and saw the pieces start to come together. Through further investigation, they identified the Michael’s probable ringleaders in the thefts and obtained warrants to search their home.

On August 18, 2010, a search warrant served at the Michael residence,13956 Melody Lane in the Log Cabin Community, Malakoff resulted in the seizure of computers, counterfeit card making equipment, hundreds of counterfeit cards, as well as recovered property, cash value cards, cash from criminal proceeds and drugs. Forensic inspection of the equipment revealed that over 6,500 victim entries were fraudulently obtained by the Michael brothers, either by access device or internet sources.  

“It had the potential for going a lot farther than it did,” Bonnette said.

Most of the loss will be absorbed by the financial institutions issuing the credit cards or by the merchants, Bonnette said.

“When the customers come to their banks and say they’ve had a fraudulent transaction on their card, they will be asked to provide whatever information is required by the institution,” Bonnette said. “They will be asked to get a police report and provide a copy of that. At that point, most of the financial institutions will reimburse the customer.”

The credit card supplier will then either absorb the loss or charge it back to the merchant where .

“Most of what they were hitting were WalMart,” Bonnette said. “WalMart has absorbed a great loss in this as well as the financial institutions.”

The agencies involved in the investigation include United States Secret Service, United States Attorney's Office-Eastern District, Smith County Sheriff's Office, Henderson County Sheriff's Office, Tyler PD, Athens PD, Caney City PD, Longview PD, Mesquite PD, Terrell PD, Waco PD, Corsicana PD, Waxahachie PD,  Van Zandt County Pct. 4 Constable, Wal-Mart Stores Asset Protection, and Southside Bank.