Guilty pleas for leaders in card-skimming ring

One of the leaders in an identity-theft ring that stole the credit card numbers of hundreds of D.C.-area consumers has pleaded guilty and the other is scheduled to do so on Monday. William Martin and Usman Muhammed were charged in July with running a card-skimming ring that stole credit card numbers, re-encoded those numbers on credit and gift cards and used the cards to buy merchandise and additional gift cards at stores in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

They also recruited and paid “runners” to use the re-encoded credit and gift cards to buy merchandise and return previously purchased items for cash, according to court records.