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March 22, 2007
JURY CONVICTS AFRICAN NATIONAL OF AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT
(HOUSTON, TX) Prince Artman Latoya, 34, of Houston, Texas, was convicted of mail fraud, fraud in connection with identification documents and access devides and aggraaved identity theft by a jury’s verdict, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.
The jury’s verdicts convicting Latoya came after a two day trial and approximately two hours of hours of deliberation on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 and found Latoya guilty of six counts of mail fraud, one count of fraud in connection with identification documents, one count of fraud in connection with access devices, and one count of aggravated identity theft. During the trial, which began on Monday, March 19, trial testimony and evidence showed that Capital One Bank contacted the United States Postal Inspection Service in early July 2006 to report that 23 fraudulent credit card accounts had been opened using various apartments on South Voss Street in Houston, Texas as the address on the account application and that all of the accounts were accessed by one of two separate telephones. According to the bank, after the cards were mailed charges for cash advances, ATM withdrawals, and merchandise purchases were made on the cards.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, through the Houston United States Attorneys Office, applied for and received court orders to obtain information pertaining to the two cellular telephones associated with the multiple accounts. That information allowed inspectors to locate the phones. The telephones were recovered on July 27, 2006 from a Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by and occupied only by Prince Artman Latoya, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, Africa. Latoya was arrested and the truck was searched further. Inspectors located two notebooks with hundreds of pages of handwritten notes containing the names, dates of birth, social security numbers, credit account numbers, and other personal identification information of numerous different individuals. Inspectors also located a receipt for a storage unit in the name of Latoya. After securing a warrant, the storage unit was searched and inspectors found more notebooks with notes of personal identification information, 9 actual credit cards, and a large quantity of financial mail that had been sent to dozens of different individuals. A fingerprint examiner testified that Prince Artman Latoya’s fingerprints were found in many different places in the documents found in both the truck and the storage unit. At the timeof Latoya’s arrest losses of over $100,000 were shown.
Latoya faces up to 30 years imprisonment on each of the mail fraud counts of conviction. Each count of fraud in connection with an access devices conviction carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. The fraud in connection with identification documents carries a maximum five year term of imprisonment. For the aggravated identity theft conviction, Latoya faces two years imprisoment to be served consecutive to or after any other prison term imposed. United States District Judge Ewing Werlein, who presided over the trial of this case, has set sentencing for June 15, 2007.
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