Credit Card Counterfeiter Sentenced

Los Angeles resident Dalton L. Backus, 64, was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in federal prison for making more than 1,600 counterfeit credit cards at his North Hollywood plastic card manufacturing company.

Backus pleaded guilty in February 1996 to six felony counts related to trafficking and possessing counterfeit credit cards with the intent to defraud, and an additional felony count of criminal forfeiture, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

In a plea agreement, Backus admitted to manufacturing and selling 679 counterfeit Visa and MasterCard credit cards to a confidential informant for $37,000, which could be used to defraud the card companies of $2.5 million, Mrozek said. Federal prosecutors do not know if Backus sold any other cards, he said.

Backus used his business, Tritel Custom Cards--which legitimately produced identification cards for hospitals and health clubs--to manufacture at least another 1,000 fake credit cards, Mrozek said.

Federal prosecutor Lisa Feldman said U.S. District Judge James M. Ideman handed down a sentence considered “on the high end for credit card fraud cases because the loss intended was pretty high.”