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Angel Angulo of Riverside, California, previously admitted that he and his co-conspirators replaced swipe terminals with imitations that they used to record the bank account numbers and PINs.
They used the information to create bogus cards that were then used to withdraw money from hundreds of victims' accounts, he said.
The crew replaced 88 terminals with imitations in 80 different stores operated by Michaels across 19 states, including New York, federal authorities said.
Of its 21 stores in Connecticut, Michaels has locations in Brookfield, Stamford, Westport and Wilton.
Angulo and co-conspirator Crystal Banuelos created 179 counterfeit cards that were used to withdraw $480,300, authorities said. Banuelos, who previously pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 5.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez sentenced Angulo to five years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay restitution, during Wednesday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Camden.
Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Angulo will have to serve nearly all of the sentence in exchange for his guilty pleas to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito credited special agents of the U.S. Secret Service with the investigation leading to the guilty pleas and Angulo's sentence.
Prosecuting the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Shapiro of the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section of Carpenito's Economic Crimes Unit.
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