2 Chinese nationals arrested in global gift card scheme at Sacramento County Target, sheriff’s office says

By Michelle Bandur

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    SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. (KCRA) — A crackdown on gift card theft put two men behind bars in Sacramento County on Saturday.

As part of a retail theft operation, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Xianquing Chen, 45, and Haining He, 31, who they said worked together in the scheme.

The sheriff’s office said Chen and He, who are both Chinese nationals, are being held without bail in the Sacramento County Jail, facing four felonies, including conspiracy and organized retail theft.

The Sacramento County Organized Retail Theft Task Force released surveillance video that shows what looks like a regular customer buying a gift card at Target.

“What you’re seeing is a real-time overlay of what’s coming up as being purchased and what’s being brought across the register,” said Det. Andy Cater.

The video actually shows a crime taking place at the Target on Fulton Avenue in Arden-Arcade Saturday.

“They were grabbing the gift cards from directly over the register, ringing it up for a dollar amount, and then just trying a bunch of different bank cards, ATM cards, prepaid cards, through the transaction portal,” Cater said.

The transactions took place at the self-pay registers.

Property crimes detectives from the sheriff’s organized retail theft task force arrested the pair.

Cater said it’s credit card fraud and money laundering.

“They’re getting the money from the retail establishments. They’re able to wash it through other systems so that when they combine those cards later on, it’s very, very difficult to figure out where the funds ended up coming through,” he said.

Cater said the suspects conducted a series of rapid transactions with bank cards using a Google or Apple pay app on their phones.

Cater said Chen attempted to use 42 separate banking cards. Even though 32 cards were declined, Cater said Chen still had transactions totaling $855.

Of the 48 cards he attempted to use, Cater said 37 were declined, but he successfully processed transactions totaling $633.

Investigators say they have tapped into a huge global operation.

“You’re talking about multiple billions of dollars every year that’s being siphoned and then laundered through in order to purchase product and ship it overseas,” Cater said.

Cater said they are buying high-end electronics.

He also said the suspects said someone hired them for $250 a day to buy gift cards. They are expected to appear before a judge Tuesday.

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