By Chad Bray Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A former information/technical analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and his brother were arrested Friday in an alleged identity theft scheme.
Curtis L. Wiltshire, who was terminated by the New York Fed in February, has been charged in a three-count complaint with bank fraud, fraud in connection with identification documents and aggravated identity theft, while his brother, Kenneth Wiltshire, has been separately charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The bank fraud charge carries up to 30 years in prison and the mail fraud charge carries up to 20 years in prison. The identity theft charge carries mandatory minimum of two years in prison and must be imposed consecutively to any other sentence the men may receive if convicted.
According to the charging document, Curtis Wiltshire had access to computer files containing personal information about employees at the New York Fed, including their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and photographs.
On Feb. 15, Curtis Wiltshire was escorted from his workstation and interviewed by a Fed investigator regarding conduct unrelated to the charges, according to the complaint. He was terminated shortly after the interview.
A portable storage thumb drive was found connected to his computer at the time. Prosecutors have alleged the thumb drive contained information related to fraudulent student loans purportedly taken out in late 2006 for attendance at Sarah Lawrence College and Vassar College using the identities of two persons who never attended those colleges. The loans were valued at about $73,000.
The thumb drive included an account statement from Sarah Lawrence in the name of one victim and an image of a check payable to that victim, an image of the Maryland driver's license of another victim and a completed student loan application in the other victim's name.
According to court documents, prosecutors have separately alleged that the brother, Kenneth Wiltshire, was witnessed in October 2008 by a U.S. postal inspector picking up a parcel at a mail box reportedly used in an identity theft scheme. The parcel included loan documents for the purchase of a 2006 Sea Ray 340 Sundancer boat.
The loan was taken out in the name of an individual living in Brooklyn who had never applied for the boat loan and was a victim of identity theft, the government said. Kenneth Wiltshire was later witnessed by the postal inspector purchasing three money orders that were sent back to the marine finance company with the executed loan documents and the copy of a counterfeit driver's license with the victim's information and the photograph of a former Fed employee, prosecutors said.
Another counterfeit driver's license with the photo of another Fed employee also was found in the mail box in October, the government said.
