A federal judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Katsiaryna Kabiarets, who is awaiting trial on identity theft charges, after she allegedly left the country last month.
Kabiarets, a Belarus native who worked as a waitress at Harpoon Hanna’s until her arrest in 2005, boarded a plane in New York bound for Belarus on July 20, violating a condition of her release that mandated she stay in either Delaware or Maryland while awaiting trial, according to court papers.
Kabiarets was arrested in November of 2005 for using a credit card reader to steal account numbers of customers at the Fenwick Island restaurant. The stolen numbers were later used for fraudulent purchases.
Eleni Kousoulis, an assistant federal public defender in Wilmington representing Kabiarets, said Kabiarets had understood the conditions of her release.
“She knew (one of) the terms of her release was that she was not to leave the jurisdiction,” Kousoulis said. “I wasn’t aware that she was leaving.”
According to court papers, Kabiarets received the credit card reader from a Russian man at a party in New York. The man, identified in court documents only as “UDI,” allegedly told Kabiarets that he would pay her $10 for each stolen Visa or MasterCard number and $15 for each stolen American Express number.
Kabiarets allegedly stole six American Express account numbers belonging to Harpoon Hanna’s patrons she served and another belonging to a customer who visited the restaurant while she was working, according to the complaint. Kabiarets allegedly used the card reader 50 times.
Kabiarets, who provided a written statement and allowed investigators to search her car and home, told investigators that she returned the card reader to a home in New York but did not accept payment. She was later caught attempting to hide the reader in a closet at Harpoon Hanna’s.
An attempt by her attorney to suppress her statements and evidence found in her car and home was denied last month. James Lucas, general manager at Harpoon Hanna’s who hired Kabiarets, said she was fired the day of her arrest.
“The whole thing was pretty unfortunate,” Lucas said. “We cooperated fully as soon as it was brought to our attention.
“There is not a whole lot we can do to prevent it,” Lucas added. “We’ve been here for 25 years, and we’ve never had any problem like that and haven’t had any problem since.”