An Atlanta man has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his part in a complicated check fraud and identity theft scheme.
Harold Wardlaw, 41, was also sentenced to an additional five years of supervised release for his part in a scheme that involved opening bank accounts with stolen checks.
A second man, Orlando King, has also pleaded guilty to similar charges for his involvement in the identity theft ring, but he has not yet been sentenced.
The men obtained more than $1 million worth of checks stolen out of the mail stream before they were delivered to the rightful recipients. They then recruited others to open bank accounts int he business names that were on the checks and withdraw the funds derived from the checks before the victims discovered the thefts.
The duo also stole Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information, and opened up credit card accounts and lines of credit at local banks. They would then take the credit cards and make fraudulent charges to businesses or obtain cash by drawing down the lines of credit.
Wardlaw must also make restitution by paying more than $1 million.
Hopefully, the victims in this crime spree were LifeLock customers. If they had been, they would have been notified immediately of any activity with their personal information, thanks to LifeLock Identity Alert™, which monitors for both credit and non-credit related identity threats.
And as LifeLock customers, these victims would have the benefit of LifeLock’s $1 million guarantee, which means that if any damage was done to their credit, LifeLock would spend up to $1 million to make things right.
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