United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

ID THEFT RINGLEADER SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON

DALLAS — The ringleader in an identity theft ring, Keasha Antoinette Turner, of Dallas, was sentenced yesterday by Senior U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $106,643 restitution announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Turner, 34, pled guilty in August to one count of bank fraud.

Turner’s co-defendant, Andrea Renee Harris, 24, who also pled guilty to bank fraud, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $11,812 restitution. Another co-defendant in the case, Christianna M. Wright, is currently serving her 34-month sentence for her bank fraud conviction. She was also ordered to pay $51,312 restitution.

As customer service and collections representatives at Citibank, Andrea Renee Harris and Christianna M. Wright had computer access to Mastercard and Visa customer credit card account information which they gave to Turner. As a direct result of Harris’s and Wright’s assistance, Turner was able to fraudulently receive, and later use, Citibank credit cards and credit account information to fraudulently purchase merchandise.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Fish read a victim impact statement provided by one of the victims in the case. In that statement, the victim detailed the actions she had to take when she realized that credit cards had been opened in her name and that someone was making thousands of dollars of purchases on them. She further explained how frightening it was to know that someone knew so much of her personal information, including her home address. She stated that she “suffered significant loss that includes my sense of security, my fear that negative financial reporting could significantly impact my employment and future employment, my personal time, time from work, a great bit of energy and huge emotional impact.”

Prior to announcing his sentence on Keasha Turner, Judge Fish noted that Turner’s involvement in ID theft-related fraud spanned many years and that her crimes had a significant impact on many victims. In particular, Judge Fish recognized that such ID theft crimes resulted in such emotional stress and pain on the lives of many victims and that he could appreciate how vulnerable and stressful victims would feel knowing that predators were out there with access to the victim’s personal confidential financial information.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the U.S. Secret Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis.

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