CONTACT: 919/856-4530
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday - May 2, 2002
RALEIGH - United States Attorney Frank D. Whitney announced that a federal grand jury sitting here on
Wednesday, May 1, 2002, returned two True Bills of Indictment that charged two eastern North Carolina men
with crimes related to identity theft.
PAUL EDWARD PRATT, a/k/a Tonya Lavett Fisher, Tonya L. Fisher,and Zhironnie Edwards, 40, of 5104 Lampost Circle, Wilmington, N. C., was charged with mail fraud, use of an unauthorized access device (credit card), and use of another person's identification to obtain things of value. If convicted as charged, he could receive a maximum sentence of 35 years imprisonment, a fine of $750,000.00, a supervised release term of three years, and forfeiture of any and all property which was used to commit the alleged offenses or which was derived from proceeds of the offenses.
According to the indictment, PRATT used his adult niece's identity to generate fraudulent tax returns. As a result of the defendant's tax fraud, he was able to intercept and spend his niece's tax refund. The defendant also used his niece's identity to obtain credit cards and a loan used to pay for breast augmentation surgery for himself. The victim, a resident of Manassas, Virginia, suffered a loss of $11,000.00 and was exposed to a much greater potential loss, as well as suffering damage to her credit history.
Investigation of the case was conducted by the United States Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General.
CHRISTOPHER LEE JONES, a/k/a Lumbee-Warrior, 25, of Pembroke, N. C., was charged with unlawfully transferring another person's identification and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices. If convicted on both counts, he could face a maximum sentence of 13 years imprisonment, a fine of $500,000.00, a supervised release term of three years, and forfeiture of any and all property which was used to commit the alleged offenses or which was derived from proceeds of the offenses.
The investigation arose when 1,000 Social Security Numbers (SSNs) were offered for sale on eBay with an opening bid of $1.00 per number for a block of 1,000 numbers. According to the indictment, upon completion of this auction, the seller listed another 1,000 SSNs for sale. The eBay seller, who was using a screen name of "lumbee-warrior," stated via the internet that the list was not the same one that he had just sold. The seller further stated that he could supply 8,000 to 10,000 more names and numbers. In one eBay ad, the seller described the offering as "500 Social security numbers all different open credit in other peoples [sic] names One dollar a piece USPS money orders only." Another ad stated "100 (one Hundred) social Security # Numbers Obtain False Credit Cards Identity [sic] Theft I Don't Care Bid Starts At A Dollar a Piece USPS Money orders only All Different." The defendant received a payment of $100.00 via U. S. Postal Service money order mailed to an address in Pembroke, N. C.
Investigation of the case was conducted by the United States Secret Service, the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.
The Pratt case is being handled for the government by Assistant U. S. Attorney Dennis M. Duffy, and the Jones case is being handled by Assistant U. S. Attorney Thomas B. Murphy.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Trial dates for these defendants have not been set.
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More About ID Theft Cases in the Eastern
District of North Carolina
News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney's web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.