Five Admit Automated Teller Scam

Five people pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on Monday to an ambitious scheme to loot what could have been millions of dollars from automated teller machines during a three-day holiday weekend.

When arrested Feb. 4, the five were busy manufacturing up to 7,500 bogus automated teller cards using account information and personal identification numbers stolen from Bank of America, prosecutors said. The scheme was called the largest of its kind uncovered anywhere in the nation.

Mark Koenig, 28, alleged mastermind of the plot, admitted to all six charges in an indictment, including conspiracy and using and producing counterfeit automated teller cards.

Prosecutors said Koenig stole the banking information while working as a computer operator for a subsidiary of General Telephone in Long Beach.

His wife, Jacklyn Bobby, 33, admitted to three counts under the same plea agreement with prosecutors.

Robert Hussey, 28, of Marina del Rey also pleaded guilty to all six felony counts.

Bobby’s sister, Bobbi Jo Bobby, 20, of Ladera Heights, admitted to two counts. Koenig’s brother, Scott Koenig, 27, of Lincoln, Neb., pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

All are scheduled for sentencing Aug. 25 before U.S. District Judge Pamela Rymer and face prison terms of up to 72 years each.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Carolyn Kubota told the judge that the Secret Service was alerted to the scheme by an unnamed informant who was recruited by Jacklyn Bobby to join the conspiracy.

The plan called for the defendants to manufacture nearly 7,500 counterfeit automated teller cards, then use them to withdraw cash at machines in California and the Midwest over the three-day Presidents Day weekend of Feb. 4-6.

Agents who raided the Ladera Heights apartment of Mark Koenig and Jacklyn Bobby on Feb. 4 found the defendants had manufactured 1,500 bogus cards from poster board and magnetic tape that were encoded with account information using a stolen device used to manufacture bank and credit cards.

Kubota said earlier that had all the cards been used to withdraw the maximum amounts from each account, the potential theft could have reached $14 million.