Richmond Couple Sentenced in Identity Theft case
02/14/2014
Richmond Couple Sentenced in Identity Theft case
Both defendants were sentenced to state prison today pursuant to a plea agreement in an eCrime prosecution involving 43 counts of identity theft and fraud stemming from a theft of $6.7 million in checks that had been deposited in a drop box outside a Charles Schwab office in Corte Madera on New Year’s Eve of 2012. Investigators from the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force identified Jason Ward from video surveillance footage, and detectives recovered many of the checks along with manufactured identity documents from a probation search at the residence he shared with Ereka Wilkerson in Richmond.
In addition to the hundreds of pieces of personal identifying information found in the their home, investigators forensically analyzed seized computer equipment and discovered evidence of dozens of additional identity theft victims whose information was combined with others’ into simulated identities and used to make purchases throughout Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties.
The defendants were caught again in Fairfield in January of 2014, driving a fraudulently-rented U-Haul truck full of equipment used to manufacture identity documents. They had been stopped, but not yet charged, for the exact same conduct in Alameda County the month prior. Police also found a storage locker in El Cerrito, rented under a false name, containing additional computer equipment and personal identifying information of dozens of Bay Area victims.
Defendant Jason Ward pleaded guilty to three counts of identity theft and admitted an aggravated white collar crime enhancement and was sentenced to six years in state prison. He was ordered to pay $111,000 in restitution to Charles Schwab for the expenses they paid out to customers. Ward pleaded guilty to three felony counts for a disposition of five years in state prison.