HOUSTON – A Houston woman has been ordered to federal prison following her conviction of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Alicia Myles, 32, pleaded guilty Oct. 9, 2015.
Today, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Myles to serve a total of 42 months – 18 months for the wire fraud and a consecutive 24 months for the identity theft. She was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release following her sentence and must pay restitution in the amount of $$77,064.86.
Myles, along with Chloe McClendon and Domonique Thomas, were able to engage in this scheme through the theft of personal identifying information (PII) of individuals from the Department of State Passport Agency where McClendon had worked. They used the stolen and unlawfully obtained PII of true persons to create counterfeit identification documents. The defendants then recruited other individuals to assume the stolen identities and use the counterfeit documents to obtain commercial lines of credit and purchase iPhones, iPads and other electronics merchandise.
McClendon and Thomas were previously sentenced to 65 and 96 months in federal prison, respectively.
Previously released on bond, Myles was ordered into custody following the hearing today.
The investigation leading up to the arrest was conducted by the Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, Houston Field Office and Criminal Fraud Investigations Division and the Houston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ted Imperato and Alamdar Hamdani are prosecuting this case.