News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
January 30, 2009
Former security guard is sentenced for theft of
hospital patients’ identity information in fraud scheme
A federal judge today sentenced Michael Bermudez, a former contract security guard at Rhode Island Hospital, to 39 months in prison for credit card fraud and identity theft. Bermudez pleaded guilty to those charges last August, admitting that he stole hospital patients’ identity information and, with the help of store clerks, opened cell phone and charge accounts at a RadioShack store in Cranston.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentence, which U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith imposed in U.S. District Court, Providence.
The 39-month sentence includes a mandatory, consecutive two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft. Bermudez must also pay a total of $18,000 restitution to RadioShack, Sprint, and AT&T.
At Bermudez’s plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adi Goldstein said the government could prove that, between April 2006 and February 2008, while employed as a security guard and assigned to posts at Rhode Island Hospital, Bermudez used his position to obtain identity information of patients, including emergency room patients. He then took that information to the RadioShack store, where sales clerks activated Sprint accounts and RadioShack charge accounts in the victims’ names. They used substitute addresses so the victims would not be billed at their homes.
Bermudez admitted that, after obtaining the cell phones, he sold them as pre-paid phones for about $150 each.
Bermudez, 27, of Regent Avenue, Providence, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, trafficking in unauthorized and counterfeit access devices (credit cards and cell phones), and aggravated identity theft, which is identity theft used in the commission of another crime.
Three former RadioShack clerks – Hector Alvarez, James Hernandez and Esteban Tiguila, have admitted their roles in the fraud scheme. Alvarez and Hernandez have been sentenced to three years probation and must pay restitution. Alvarez was also sentenced to six months home confinement. Tiguila is free on bond awaiting sentencing. A jury found another former clerk, Robert Valerio, guilty of a dozen charges in connection with the scheme. He is free on bond pending sentencing.
The United States Secret Service conducted the investigation, with assistance from Cranston Police.
Contact: 401-709-5032 Thomas.connell@usdoj.gov