ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WRIC) — The owner of a coffee shop in the Rosslyn area of Arlington County has been convicted on several charges in federal court in connection to a credit card fraud scheme that authorities say had hundreds of victims.
According to court records, 50-year-old Adiam Berhane of defrauded Washington, D.C.-area residents from at least 2013 to 2016, stealing their identities and using them to purchase gift cards and other items.
Investigators found credit card manufacturing equipment in Berhane’s D.C. apartment and determined that she was buying stolen credit card information online. One of Berhane’s three co-conspirators would put that information on fake cards, which Berhane would then give to the other two to use at stores around the region.
Items purchased with the fake cards would sometime be returned, with the money going to several accounts controlled by Berhane, who managed the distribution of the cards and decided how her co-conspirators would be paid.
In addition, Berhane would use the fraudulent cards to purchase gift cards which she would redeem at her business, Caffe Aficionado in Rosslyn. More than a third of Caffe Aficionado’s income between June 2013 and July 2016 came from a “pattern of highly unusual” transactions using American Express gift cards. This began months before the café opened, which was in October of 2013.
On Friday, Dec. 9, Berhane was convicted of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, trafficking in unauthorized access devices, aggravated identity theft, unlawful possession of 15 of more access devices and possession of access device-making equipment with intent to defraud.
Berhane faces a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of 196 years. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 15, 2023.
