SOUTH KING COUNTY MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ID THEFT/ BANK FRAUD SCHEME
Identity Information Stolen While Defendant Worked as Janitor at US Bank
FEDERICO TITO MORED, 36, of Federal Way, Washington was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle today to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release for Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft. Judge James L. Robart ruled at sentencing that MORED’s crimes impacted not just financial institutions, but more than 250 victims whose personal information was stolen.
According to the indictment, MORED, while employed at a janitorial company working at night in a U.S. Bank branch, joined with other conspirators to steal information on more than 250 bank customers. Using that information MORED opened credit accounts in the customers names, and signed up for on-line banking for accounts that had not previously had on-line banking. Using the credit card accounts they purchased expensive items such as laptop computers, flat screen televisions and airline tickets. Using on line banking they paid their own bills and transferred funds to checking accounts that they then drained. They also submitted change of address requests on line, so that the customers did not get their bank statements alerting them to the problem. MORED was ordered to pay $35,056 in restitution to the bank.
Though the financial losses were to U.S. Bank and the financial institution that issued the credit cards, Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn Kim Frierson wrote to the court that the victims of ID theft should be factored into the sentence. “These individuals had their sense of security destroyed and must now constantly monitor their credit records due to the fact that Mr. Mored disseminated the information to a number of people who, in turn, may have further disseminated the information.... Their names, addresses, social security numbers, account numbers, and balance information have been widely disseminated to drug dealers and other criminals who were and are willing to exploit the information,” Frierson wrote to the court.
MORED was investigated by the King County Sheriff’s Department, FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn Kim Frierson as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office working group on Identity Theft.
For additional information on this case, or on the ID Theft Working Group, please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110.
