A. COURTNEY COX, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

Nine Executive Drive, Fairview Heights, Illinois 62208, Telephone (618) 628-3700

For Immediate Release JUNE 2, 2009

REPEAT OFFENDER GUILTY OF IDENTITY THEFT SCHEME

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that JENNIFER LYNN SCHOENBECK, age 31, of Belleville, Illinois, pleaded guilty to an information charging three counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to a factual stipulation filed at the time of her plea, from March, 2008, to December, 2008, acting from her Belleville home, SCHOENBECK participated in wire and mail fraud schemes to defraud and to obtain money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses which involved identity theft and access device fraud. By virtue of her employment as a manager of a restaurant, SCHOENBECK had access to personal identity information of at least eleven individuals who had either applied to work at the restaurant or who worked at the restaurant, including their names and social security numbers. SCHOENBECK would open bank accounts, sometimes by completing an application on the internet. When asked by the bank to provide a social security number, SCHOENBECK would use the social security number of someone she knew, she would use a social security number which she obtained during the course of her employment as restaurant manager, or she would simply make up a social security number. On some occasions, via the U.S. Mail, SCHOENBECK would receive a debit card which would enable her to withdraw funds from a bank account.

SCHOENBECK would apply to consumer loan companies for loans online, by completing applications over the internet, thereby causing interstate wire communications. In applying for consumer loans, SCHOENBECK would use names other than her own, and she would use the social security number of someone she knew, she would use a social security number which she obtained during the course of her employment as restaurant manager, or she would simply make up a social security number. SCHOENBECK would request that the loan proceeds be deposited into one of the bank accounts she controlled. If an online consumer loan application was approved, and if loan proceeds were deposited into one of the bank accounts she controlled, SCHOENBECK would spend the loan proceeds, typically by making debit card withdrawals from the bank account. The aggravated identity theft charge results from SCHOENBECK’S use of a former boyfriend’s social security number during the course of the wire fraud scheme.

Sentencing is set for October 9, 2009. Each count of mail and wire fraud carries a possible term of imprisonment of up to twenty years and a fine of up to $250,000. The penalty for aggravated identity theft is a two year term of imprisonment which must run consecutively to the term of imprisonment imposed for the wire fraud scheme.

SCHOENBECK has been in custody since she was arrested on February 2, 2009, following the filing of a petition to revoke her supervised release. SCHOENBECK was serving a term of supervised release following a prior federal conviction for engaging in an identity theft scheme. On May 27, 2009, SCHOENBECK'S supervised release was revoked and she was sentenced to serve a ten month term of imprisonment.

The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne M. Garrison.