PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A 69-year-old Providence man will spend three years in federal prison for his part in a scheme that drained gift cards bought by charities, churches and schools to help families in need.
Esteban (Steven) Antonio Perez received 36 months behind bars plus three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island announced Monday. He had already admitted to access device fraud and to conspiring to commit it.
Prosecutors said Perez and others compromised at least 2,591 gift cards from October 2024 through October 2025, causing losses of more than $230,000. More than 80 community organizations had bought the cards in bulk.
Members of the ring used the stolen card numbers to buy baby formula, coffee, energy drinks, food and household goods at a major grocery chain with stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Perez served as the main fence for the ring, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He paid co-conspirators cut-rate prices for the stolen goods and then sold them to other local grocery stores and bodegas. When he was arrested, investigators found his vehicle and a storage unit packed with food kept in unsanitary conditions, among them raw shrimp that appeared to have gone unrefrigerated overnight. Investigators said the goods posed a possible health risk to shoppers who bought them.
The grocery chain ran its own internal probe and paid back the affected customers, many of them nonprofits serving children, cancer patients and survivors of domestic violence.
Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor Dean prosecuted it.
Section: More Providence RI crime news
Filed under: Providence RI Crime News
