North Dakota Man Sentenced To Three Years For Traveling With A Stolen Passport And Aggravated Identity Theft Charges
CHARLOTTE, N.C. –William Albert Ulmer, aka “Bill Ulmer,” 49, of West Dickinson, North Dakota, was sentenced today to three years in prison for traveling with a stolen passport and aggravated identity theft charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. also sentenced Ulmer to three years of supervised release after he is released from prison.
Thomas Haycraft, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of State, joins U.S. Attorney Rose in making todays’ announcement.
According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, from about March 2009 to about December 23, 2010, Ulmer stole and used his brother’s passport, Wayne Jacob Ulmer, Jr. to travel between the United States and Costa Rica. Court records show that Ulmer used his brother’s passport to fly from Norfolk, Virginia, to San Jose, Costa Rica on March 11, 2009, where he resided for approximately 21 months. According to court records, at the time Ulmer used his brother’s passport to fly to Costa Rica, he was facing state charges in North Carolina related to a worthless check scheme. Court records show that Ulmer flew out of the United States in March 2009, failing to appear to a court hearing related to the pending state charges, scheduled for April 15, 2009, in Dare County Criminal Superior Court.
Ulmer used his brother’s passport again for his return trip to the United States. According to court records, Ulmer left Costa Rica in December 2010, around the time Costa Rican authorities began to investigate the disappearance of Ms. Barbara Strunkova, Ulmer’s live-in girlfriend at the time. According to court records, Ulmer landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on December 23, 2010, and presented his brother’s stolen passport to U.S. Customs officials, entering the United States under his brother’s name. After clearing U.S. Customs, Ulmer then used the stolen passport again to continue his air travel to his final destination in Norfolk, Virginia.
Ulmer pleaded guilty in September 2015 to one count of possession of identification document with intent to defraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Ulmer is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney Rose thanked the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service for handling the investigation and the Kill Devil Hills Police Department for their assistance with this case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Malley, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, prosecuted the case.