{"id":66623,"date":"2025-12-21T07:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/66623\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T07:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T07:03:12","slug":"credit-card-fraud-allentown-area-man-accused-of-stealing-from-pediatric-cancer-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/66623\/","title":{"rendered":"Credit card fraud: Allentown area man accused of stealing from Pediatric Cancer Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Allentown<\/a> area man is accused of stealing over $600,000 in checks and more than 40 fraudulent debit and credit cards from various victims, police said.<\/p>\n

Cesar Eduardo Martes-Cedano, 24, is charged with one count of felony unauthorized use of an access device and two counts of misdemeanor unauthorized use of an access device.<\/p>\n

Martes-Cedano was arraigned Nov. 25 before District Judge Daniel C. Trexler, who initially set bail at 10% of $150,000.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 2, a judge decreased Martes-Cedano\u2019s bail to $75,000. Unable to post bail, Martes-Cedano remained Friday at the Lehigh County jail.<\/p>\n

South Whitehall Township police announced the charges against Martes-Cedano Thursday on the department\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>. Court records did not immediately list an attorney representing Martes-Cedano<\/p>\n

Police said the investigation began after detectives received a report involving a local business and then authorities identified several other potential victims.<\/p>\n

Investigators obtained a search warrant and raided Martes-Cedano\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

They seized the stolen checks, debit and credit cards, and numerous fraudulent documents and electronic devices that contained evidence of \u201cfraudulent activity,\u201d police said of the search.<\/p>\n

While in possession of a stolen corporate credit card from the Pediatric Cancer Foundation of the Lehigh Valley, Martes-Cedano bought $900 worth of items in April at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods and Walmart, both in Whitehall, the Morning Call<\/a> reported, citing court records.<\/p>\n

He allegedly attempted to use the card at a Best Buy store, but it was declined, the report stated.<\/p>\n

The investigation into the case remains ongoing by South Whitehall Township Police Department and the United States Postal Inspection Service. <\/p>\n

Court records show Martes-Cedano gave up his right to a preliminary hearing on Dec. 2 before Trexler. The judge then sent all the charges to the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, where Martes-Cedano could stand trial.<\/p>\n

Martes-Cedano is due to appear in county court for a formal arraignment tentatively scheduled for Jan. 16 before Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas<\/a> Judge Robert L. Steinberg.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call South Whitehall Police Detective Tyler Doherty at 610-398-0337.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Allentown area man is accused of stealing over $600,000 in checks and more than 40 fraudulent debit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-66623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}