The wife of sometime-Mariner Carlos Peguero stole about $180,000 worth of goods in the summer of 2012 from the fraudulent use of a debit card belonging to the wife of star pitcher Felix Hernandez, according to charging documents filed in federal court Oct. 1.
The Seattle Times reported Saturday that Maria Jacqueline Peguero, 22, has been charged in U.S. District Court in Tacoma with three counts of wire fraud, which carries a possible penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Carlos Peguero has been in the organization since 2005, but played only two games in 2013 with the big club.
The charges say that between May and October 2012, Maria Peguero used a debit card belonging to Sandra Hernandez to buy nearly $180,000 from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
The U.S. Secret Service, which oversees the federal cybercrime task force, began scrutinizing the transactions after the department store reported discovering a discrepancy between the deliveries to the Peguero apartment in Fife and the billing address of the Hernandez home in Bellevue. The Secret Service executed a search warrant at the apartment and seized dozens of items.
They were not identified in court records, but a source told the Times, and the Mariners confirmed, that the Hernandezes were the victims.
More than 60 transactions, from a few hundred dollars to one of more than $11,000, were reported. Morgan Stanley bank has reimbursed the victims for their losses. Maria Peguero has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond. Carlos Peguero told investigators he had no knowledge of the trannsations.
Maria Peguero, youngest daughter of the late Pedro Borbon, a top reliever for the Cincinnati Reds during their Big Red Machine days of the 1970s, stayed at the Hernandez home in May 2012, where the women shopped together online. She gained access to the card. The documents say Sandra Hernandez asked for help because of her limited English.
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Lol. This franchise is a tire fire.