ID thief hits state coffers for $200,000

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100913/ARTICLES/100919793?Title=ID-thief-hits-state-coffers-for-200-000

ID thief hits state coffers for $200,000
Using stolen IDs, man forged state checks, cashed them at Safeway stores

By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, September 13, 2010 at 8:51 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 13, 2010 at 8:51 p.m.

A mobile blood-testing company is believed to be the source of 500,000 
California identities used to create fake drivers licenses and checks, 
investigators said.

A Castro Valley man is at the center of what detectives called a .huge. 
scheme in which stolen identities were used to create fraudulent 
unemployment and in-home health support checks that were cashed in Safeway 
stores across northern California, including Sonoma County.

Brad William Hesse, 49, pled guilty to cashing a fake state-issued check 
for $478 at a Truckee Safeway and is to be sentenced by a Nevada County 
judge Tuesday.

That check may represent just a sliver of the money Hesse and his 
associates allegedly took from the state. The stolen identities were used 
to drain at least $200,000 from state coffers, said Carl Chapman, 
operations supervisor with the Napa-based Northern California Computer 
Crimes Task Force.

"The one thing (the victims) had in common is they all had blood work done 
for insurance purposes," Chapman said.

[..]
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