Identity Thief from Grand Rapids, MI Sentenced

Will serve 4 years for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft

On Sept 24, 2008, US District Judge Robert Holmes Bell sentenced a 29 year old illegal alien and former resident of NYC to four years in federal prison for conspiring to commit identity theft, mail fraud and aggravited identity theft. Agents of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) — an agency of the USPS dedicated to investigating mail fraud and mail related identity theft — and the US Secret Service arrested the man on Feb 14, 2008 in Grand Rapids, Michigan as he was receiving delivery of a fraudulent credit card.

The man was responsible for exploiting the identities of at least 25 other people in a scheme that defrauded HSBC Bank and Chase Bank of over $300,000.00 between Feb 2007 and his 2008 arrest. His scheme, which spanned beyond Grand Rapids to Chicago, NYC, and Columbus, involved using personal identifying information of individuals in NY, MN, PA, and elsewhere to take over existing credit card accounts and open new fraudulent accounts. He then used these cards to purchase high-end electronics and photography equipment that he then shipped to NYC for sale on the black market.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Secret Service, and was prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen W. Frank. The story was originally reported here.