SAN FRANCISCO—Federal prosecutors sentenced a San Francisco man to 100 months in prison for stealing credit cards and using them to pay for high-end hotels and plane tickets, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, October 8.
Marcus Diete Felder, 54, of San Francisco, was convicted in February 2018 for access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. Federal officials said they found evidence that Felder used Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit cards from other people to pay for expensive hotels in San Francisco including the Fairmont Hotel, the Hotel Nikko and the Grand Hyatt. The evidence, which was presented in a six-day jury trial, also showed that he paid for a trip to Maui with a stolen credit card. He used it to pay for first-class plane tickets, to rent a car and to to stay at a Four Seasons Resort.
Feder engaged in these activities from April 2013 through October 2014, when he was arrested for trying to use a stolen credit card in a casino at Placer County. The jury concluded that he also used personal information of another person who shares his first and last names. The San Francisco man was charged and released on bond in 2017, but failed to go to court for sentencing and was charged for it in October 2019. In June 2020, he pleaded guilty to contempt and failure to appear charges.
The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service. In addition to serving 100 months in prison, Feder has to pay over $60,000 in restitution and has a three-year-period of supervised release. He is in custody and will be serving his sentencing immediately.
