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Former U.S. Army Finance Technician Pleads Guilty to
Theft of Soldiers' Social Security Numbers and Pay
LEV L. DASSIN, Acting United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, and KENNETH SIEGLER, Resident
Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Inspector
General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service ("DOD-OIG/DCIS"),
announced that REYNALDO JIMENEZ pleaded guilty today to charges
arising out of his theft of identity information belonging to
over 35 active duty United States military service members and
his use of that information to steal pay due to those service
members. According to the Information, Complaint, and statements
made in Court in connection with JIMENEZ's guilty plea:
JIMENEZ served as an active duty Finance Technician in
the United States Army from September 2005 until March 2008. As
a Financial Technician, JIMENEZ's responsibilities included
helping military personnel with payroll issues. Military
personnel were able to access their payroll information through
the military's online "myPay" website and could direct where
their pay should be deposited using that website. JIMENEZ
assisted some service members in accessing their payroll
information through myPay. By assisting soldiers with their
myPay accounts, JIMENEZ obtained access to the social security
numbers and myPay passwords of a number of military personnel.
JIMENEZ kept a list of a number of those social security numbers
and passwords.
In early March 2008, JIMENEZ left his duty station in
South Korea without the Army's permission and was designated
Absent Without Leave ("AWOL"). The following month, JIMENEZ used
some of those social security numbers and passwords to log onto
various soldiers' myPay accounts and to change information in
those accounts. In particular, he directed the soldiers' pay to
be deposited into bank and debit accounts that he controlled. As
part of his scheme, JIMENEZ obtained two false driver's licenses
and opened debit card accounts in other names, into which he
routed some of the military victims' pay. From approximately
April through September 2008, JIMENEZ attempted to steal over
$35,000 from more than 35 active duty military service members,
and was successful in stealing approximately $6,500. JIMENEZ was
arrested on September 16, 2008 by campus police at the Bronx
Community College while he was in the process of accessing a
service member's account. At the time of his arrest JIMENEZ
possessed a number of false identification cards and a number of
social security numbers, eighteen of which belonged to active
duty service members.
JIMENEZ, 31, pleaded guilty this morning before United
States District Judge JOHN G. KOELTL to one count of identity
theft, one count of access device fraud, one count of fraud in
connection with protected computers, and one count of aggravated
identity theft. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24, 2009
at 9:30 a.m. before Judge KOELTL, and faces a maximum sentence of
37 years in prison.
MR. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the
Defense Criminal Investigative Service and thanked the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and Bronx Community College's Department
of Public Safety for their assistance in this case.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office's Major
Crimes and Computer Hacking/Intellectual Property Unit.
Assistant United States Attorney AMIE N. ELY is in charge of the
prosecution.
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