FEDERAL GRAND JURY RETURNS INDICTMENTS

Hammond, IN—The United States Attorney's Office announced that a Grand Jury sitting in Hammond, Indiana, returned the following Indictments on December 19, 2007:

NICHOLAS BAPTIST, 34, a Malaysian national studying at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, was charged in a 12 count indictment with Wire Fraud. The indictment alleges that Baptist devised a scheme to defraud Half.Com users seeking to purchase textbooks by obtaining money from those users which he removed from the United States by wire transfer to bank accounts he held in Singapore and Malaysia. Baptist caused approximately 384 phony bank accounts to be opened at JP Morgan Case bank in Lafayette, Indiana for nonexistent employees who he represented to the bank would sell college textbooks, and then used the bank account information to open approximately 568 seller accounts at Half.com. Baptist then advertised the college textbooks for sale on all of the phony Half.Com seller accounts he had created. Buyers, believing they were purchasing books from Half.Com seller accounts sent in over $5.3 million dollars in payment to those accounts.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane L. Berkowitz.

CHARLENE TAGER, 42, of Vine Grove, Kentucky, was charged in a 1 count indictment with Embezzlement of a United States Social Security check. Tager cashed and used her sons Social Security benefits despite the fact that he no longer resided with her.

This case is being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General Social Security Administration. This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane L. Berkowitz.

The specific sentence in each case to be imposed upon conviction will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The United States Attorney's Office emphasized that these indictments are merely allegations and that all persons charged are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in

court.