Barsumyan

Facts, Procedural History, and Jurisdiction

In October 2005, an informant cooperating with the United States Secret Service charged that Defendant-Appellant Aram Barsumyan was involved in schemes to manufacture counter- feit credit cards. Barsumyan told this informant that he was interested in making contacts to help him engage in various kinds of credit card fraud. The informant agreed to introduce Barsumyan to a hotel employee, who, unbeknown to Barsu- myan, was an undercover Secret Service Case Agent. During an arranged meeting, the Agent told Barsumyan that, in the course of her duties at the hotel, she had access to guests’ credit cards. Barsumyan gave the Agent a “skimming device,”1 and asked her to covertly “skim” the hotel guests’ credit cards when they registered. The Agent was instructed to then return the device to Barsumyan. He then promised her that for every ten credit card numbers she captured on the device, he would give her two “high quality” counterfeit credit cards.

The following month, the Agent returned the skimming device to Barsumyan, loaded with ten credit card numbers. At a subsequent rendezvous, Barsumyan gave the Agent one counterfeit credit card. When…