Mckenzie Levar Monestine, 33, of Miami, Florida, United States was sentenced on February 27, 2026 to 55 months in federal prison. The sentencing follows a comprehensive investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that uncovered a massive digital and physical trove of stolen personal information used to defraud victims of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
U.S. District Court records indicate that following Monestine’s prison term, he will serve three years of supervised release. In December 2025, he previously pleaded guilty to one count of possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The 2020 FBI raid
The case against Monestine began in earnest on June 22, 2020 when federal agents executed a search warrant at his Miami residence. Inside a padlocked room, law enforcement discovered a sophisticated fraud hub.
Evidence seized from the room included a MacBook Pro and multiple cellphones containing spreadsheets and digital notes. These devices held the Personally Identifying Information (PII) of hundreds of victims, including:
- Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
- Bank account logins and passwords.
- PIN numbers for credit and debit cards.
- Driver’s license numbers and contact information.
Investigators noted that Monestine utilized social media and email to facilitate his schemes, frequently exchanging text messages that contained sensitive banking data used to hijack the accounts of unsuspecting individuals.
Physical evidence, financial impact
Beyond the digital evidence, the search yielded a staggering amount of physical contraband. Agents recovered over $11,000 in U.S. currency, numerous gift cards, and money orders from Western Union. Most notably, they found a credit card re-encoder, a device used to rewrite the data on a card’s magnetic strip or chip, allowing the user to create cloned cards.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) estimates the total financial loss resulting from Monestine’s activities to be between $250,000 and $550,000.
A blow to violent crime networks
This prosecution is a byproduct of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime Initiative. While the charges in this specific case focus on fraud, the initiative represents a partnership between the DOJ and the Southern District of Florida to confront the infrastructure used by gang members and their associates to fund criminal activities.
The announcement was made by assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva, U.S. attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones, and FBI special agent in charge Brett D. Skiles. The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys Jinah Chang and Jennifer E. Burns alongside assistant U.S. attorney Lindsey Maultasch.
CONAN Daily 