FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
May 13, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LEADER OF IDENTITY THEFT SCHEME SENTENCED TO OVER 6 YEARS IN PRISON
Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Carl Jack Smith, age 41, of Clinton, Maryland, today to 75 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Williams also ordered Smith to pay $165,371.45 in restitution, and to forfeit $66,709 and jewelry seized by law enforcement.
According to his guilty plea, from March to December 2006, Smith obtained from a conspirator checks that were stolen from the mail at the Upper Marlboro post office. Smith manufactured and provided to other conspirators fraudulent driver’s licenses and other identification in the name of payees listed on the stolen checks, but bearing the conspirators’ photographs. Smith also used the stolen checks to produce counterfeit checks. Conspirators cashed the stolen and counterfeit checks at banks using the fraudulently produced identification and gave the proceeds to Smith.
By December 2006, the Upper Marlboro post office received numerous complaints from individuals that mail had been stolen and stolen checks had been fraudulently cashed. One of Smith’s conspirators was arrested in December 2006 for stealing checks from the mail at the post office.
The conspirators withdrew a total of $165,371.45 from eight victim banks as a result of this scheme.
Another co-conspirator, Alvin Spencer, has also pled guilty to this offense and will be sentenced July 15, 2009.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service, Officer of Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service and the Prince George’s County Police Department for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf, who prosecuted the case.