Authorities chasing a Portland, Ore.-based ID theft and bank fraud ring, which included the burglary of a Kirkland law office and the defrauding of the Kirkland and Juanita branches of US Bank, apprehended six individuals named in a April 7 federal grand jury indictment.
The suspects were recently taken into custody and face charges of conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and bank fraud charges from incidents stretching across 12 states since 2001. Richard De’Shawn Mastin, 35, and Raymond Contreras III, 28, Crystal Lynn Tuell, 26, Gregory Michael Zimmerman, 33 and Reggie Allan Maier, 29, were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore. on April 15. The sixth suspect charged, Oxnard, Calif. resident Antione Lamont Lawrence, 35, was also arrested and appeared in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. They are also charged with possessing stolen property, including identification and personal information.
Total losses resulting from the stolen credit cards and cashed stolen checks, according to the indictment, are estimated at nearly $400,000 and investigators have identified hundreds of victims in several states. The Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Secret Service and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office are among the numerous agencies that have tracked the crime spree and were involved in their capture.
According to indictment documents, several of the alleged suspects were involved in stealing nearly $30,000 in checks from an unnamed Kirkland law office in 2003 and then cashing them at a US Bank in Kirkland.
The documents state that Lawrence and Maier traveled from Portland to Seattle on Sept. 7, 2003 and stole checks, business cards and envelopes from a Kirkland law office. The envelopes contained the name of the law office.
The next day, according to charging documents, the pair handed off the stolen checks to Contreras, a man named Alfonso Lopez-Ramirez and a woman – Portland resident Jennifer Erin Barnes – at shopping malls in the Seattle area. Contreras then went to a US Bank in Kirkland and fraudulently posed as “Christopher O’Carrol” and cashed a check worth $9,850 in Kirkland and Barnes – also using an alias – cashed a check for $9,500 in Juanita, according to Kirkland Police.
On Sept. 9, 2003, the suspects returned to the US Bank Kirkland branch again and Barnes attempted to cash a $8,500 check using the name “Eloise Anderson”, but was arrested by Kirkland Police on charges of theft, possession of stolen property and marijuana possession.
Kirkland Det. Don Carroll travelled down to Vancouver, Wash. to question Barnes about the names of the other conspirators. She was released without charge, promising that she would help authorities. But she fled the state instead.
“We really thought we were going to get somewhere,” Carroll said. “She just flaked out on us.”
Barnes was later arrested and convicted of first-degree theft and served 90 days in jail, while the whereabouts of Lopez-Ramirez is unknown.
The indictment says ID thieves would work in teams, with one group designated to burglarize professional businesses and the other to fraudulently pass stolen checks to unwitting banks. Prosecutors convinced a grand jury that the six were targeting the professional offices of lawyers, doctors, dentists and accountants and fraudulently posing as them – using computers, special software and sophisticated printers – to get cash at banks. The group would also use stolen credit cards or create new ones in the name of the victim to make purchases.
All defendants pled not guilty to all charges. The trial is set for July 7 before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman.
“Identity theft and bank fraud result in significant harm both to individual victims and to our financial institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement and financial institution partners to eliminate fraud and identity theft schemes that target the American public. This indictment should serve as an important reminder to all Oregonians to remain vigilant about safeguarding their identity.”
The crime ring also allegedly targeted commercial buildings in Portland, Ore., Phoenix, Ariz., Newport Beach and Beverly Hills, Calif., Dallas, Tx., and Centennial, Colorado.
Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy; Zimmerman and Maier are also charged with seven counts of bank fraud and seven counts of aggravated identity theft; Lawrence and Mastin are also charged with three counts of bank fraud and three counts of aggravated identity theft. Conspiracy charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and bank fraud could result in a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.
Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of 24 months in prison.
If you have any information about unsolved commercial burglaries which may have occurred between 2000 and 2007, please contact Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Scott McGeachy at 503-326-6328.
