United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

FEDERAL JURY CONVICTS HUSBAND AND WIFE
IN IDENTITY THEFT CASE

DALLAS — Levander Carlton McLean, 66, and his wife, Rita Murphy McLean, 45, of Garland, Texas, were convicted by a federal jury following a three-day trial last week before U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade on conspiracy to unlawfully use identification documents, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. They each face a maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution. They are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kinkeade on December 3, 2008.

The government presented evidence at trial that in July 2001, Levander and Rita Murphy McLean were able to convince their nephew, a Texas Department of Public Safety driver’s license technician, to make them a fraudulent Texas driver’s license and a fraudulent Texas identification card in the names of two innocent people living in North Carolina and South Carolina. The McLeans used these identification documents, as well as a fraudulent Michigan driver’s license that Rita McLean obtained in the name of an innocent Texas resident, to open several fraudulent bank accounts in Dallas, Michigan, and North Carolina.

From 2002 through 2004, the McLeans deposited more than $200,000 in proceeds from more than 130 false federal income tax returns, which had been filed in the names of real taxpayers using stolen W-2s, into these fraudulent accounts.

U.S. Attorney praised the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steve Fahey and Phelesa Guy prosecuted the case.

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