Last defendant in PIN-pad scheme sentenced

PROVIDENCE – The final defendant in a PIN-pad tampering scheme that allowed individuals to access customers’ account data was sentenced this month, U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced in a statement.
Mikael Stepanian was sentenced to 72 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith on Dec. 6. Stepanian, who pleaded guilty at a hearing last summer, was the last of four defendants sentenced in the scheme. Arutyun Shatarevyan, Arman Ter-Esayan and Gevork Baltadjian had all previously been sentenced to prison earlier this fall after pleading guilty.
According to a statement from Corrente’s office, the defendants had replaced PIN-pad terminals at Stop & Shop checkout counters with similar-looking devices that had been altered to capture the account data of cards that customers swiped through the terminal. •