SEATTLE, WA – A brazen identity thief with a taste for luxury and a knack for exploiting digital loopholes has been sentenced to three years in federal prison. Aaron Laws, 33, of Atlanta, Georgia, ran a sophisticated fraud scheme that spanned nearly two years and multiple states, racking up over $500,000 in illicit gains.
Between February 2017 and December 2018, Laws crisscrossed the country – Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Arizona, Georgia, and Minnesota – leaving a trail of fraudulent charges in his wake. He didn’t just swipe cards; he built an operation, recruiting accomplices and leveraging the anonymity of bitcoin, ‘burner phones,’ and digital wallets to mask his crimes. U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik, clearly unimpressed, noted at sentencing that Laws demonstrated “a very complicated criminal enterprise and nothing seemed to deter him.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman described Laws’ methods as a cynical attempt to cloak old-fashioned fraud in modern technology. “Motivated by greed, this defendant attempted to use digital advances to hide his old-fashioned fraud,” Gorman stated. Laws sourced stolen credit card data from dark web ‘carding websites,’ loading it onto prepaid phones and digital wallets for rapid fraudulent purchases. These weren’t small-ticket items either. He splurged on electronics, jewelry, and other goods easily converted to cash or, crucially, bitcoin.
The Secret Service investigation revealed a blatant disregard for the law. Laws purchased a Rolex watch exceeding $34,000 and even indulged in a diamond pendant shaped like a bitcoin symbol – a fitting emblem of his criminal enterprise. His largest single bitcoin purchase totaled $93,000 on August 23, 2017, part of a $166,000 total investment in cryptocurrency during the scheme’s run. He often dispatched co-conspirators to make purchases in person, adding a layer of separation between himself and the point of sale, though he reaped the lion’s share of the profits.
Remarkably, even an October 2017 arrest didn’t slow Laws down. He continued his fraudulent activities even while serving weekend jail time in Georgia, demonstrating a stunning level of audacity. On January 31, 2020, he finally pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft. The court ordered him to pay $623,554 in restitution, a fraction of the damage he inflicted on victims.
The case, a joint effort by the United States Secret Service and the Kirkland Police Department, serves as a stark reminder that even in the digital age, financial crime is still crime. Assistant United States Attorney Marie Dalton successfully prosecuted the case, securing a conviction and a three-year prison sentence for Laws, followed by five years of supervised release. While the digital tools changed, the motive – greed – remains stubbornly old-fashioned.
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Key Facts
- Agency: U.S. Secret Service
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Press Release
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