Sentenced: Rohnert Park Man Supported Luxury Lifestyle Through Fraud

A Rohnert Park man was sentenced to nine years and four months in the Sonoma County jail this morning for manufacturing fraudulent credit cards that he used to buy gift cards at Safeway stores in the Bay Area.

Mohannad Halaweh, 20, pleaded no contest in January to 15 of the 32 felony counts filed against him in Sonoma County Superior Court. The 32 counts also included the theft of a BMW, grand theft, burglary and receiving stolen property.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite sentenced Halaweh to 13 years and four months in prison, but she allowed him to serve the sentence in the Sonoma County Jail instead of state prison because of his
age and lack of a criminal record.

The judge also allowed Halaweh to serve the last four years of the nine years under mandatory supervision. With two days credit for each day served in the county jail, Halaweh actually will serve about four and a half years, Deputy District Attorney Amy Ariyoshi and defense attorney William Dubois said.

Halaweh faced scores of charges when he was arraigned after his arrest on June 4, 2014, but the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office eventually consolidated the offenses committed in 2014 to 32 charges.

He was charged with using a fraudulent credit card to rent a $240,000 McLauren sports car, buy a BMW and rent a $12 million vacation home in Glen Ellen for parties. The BMW will be sold at auction and the proceeds will go toward restitution to some of the victims, according to the sentencing agreement.

Halaweh used the personal information of at least 10 victims to make fraudulent credit cards on a machine, used the cards for his “rich and famous” lifestyle, and to buy gift cards at the Safeway stores as far north as Crescent City and in the North and East bays, the prosecution said.

Halaweh admitted the losses were in excess of $50,000. The loss to American Express and its victims was determined to be at least $129,000, and most of it occurred in the Safeway stores, Ariyoshi said.

Dubois asked the judge to sentence Halaweh to probation. He said Halaweh’s behavior was “extremely immature and that of a child” because he believed he was victimizing a credit card company, not people.

Ariyoshi said Halaweh’s crimes were sophisticated and planned, and he went out of Sonoma County to buy gift cards at Safeway stores. Ariyoshi said Halaweh used someone else’s house to make the fraudulent credit cards.

“He had a hog wild time on everyone else’s money. He lived like the rich and famous,” Ariyoshi said.

“You are a young man, but you are not a child. You are responsible for your decisions,” Judge Thistlethwaite told Halaweh. “You threw big parties and drove expensive cars with other people’s money,” she said.

The judge also said Halaweh’s intelligence and fraudulent credit card operation was so sophisticated, others with criminal intent “could learn from you.”

Halaweh still must be sentenced in Alameda County for attempting to buy 10 iPhones with a fraudulent credit card in an Apple store in Berkeley. DuBois said Halaweh might serve both his sentences in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

“This is a huge embarrassment to his family. His mother and father are shattered by this,” DuBois said.

“He emulated the rock star lifestyle and he saved nothing. He threw it all away,” Dubois said.

--Bay City News; Image Patch Archive