REDWOOD CITY (KRON) — A Menlo Park dry cleaning business owner pleaded no contest Friday to several identity theft and fraud charges, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.
64-year-old Edwin Smith faces up to eight years in state prison and accepted a plea deal that dropped 40 counts of felony.
Smith was arrested in January 2015 when two customers of his dry cleaning business connected him to credit card fraud.
Prosecutors conducted an credit card theft investigation where they found 19 customers of Smith’s business were overcharged more than $350,000 over several years.
Some of the victims told Smith they knew about the theft, but Smith agreed to compensate them if they didn’t report the case to police, prosecutors said.
Despite many of the charges against Smith being dropped, Smith agreed the victims could be reimbursed for all the dropped counts.
Smith is scheduled for sentencing on Oct.4, and is out of jail on a $350,000 bond.