NEWARK, N.J. – A Newark man has pleaded guilty to selling fake driver’s licenses online and filing bogus tax returns, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Alexis Scott Carthens, 38, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with authentication features and one count of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Carthens and his co-conspirators sold fake driver’s licenses over the Internet through a website available at ‘fakeidstore.co’ and ‘fakedlstore.com.’ The website boasted that the licenses had ‘scannable barcodes’ and ‘real’ holographic overlays, and the price for each fake driver’s license was approximately $150, with bulk pricing for orders of 10 or more.
The website allowed its users to pay by bitcoin or MoneyPak, a type of prepaid payment card that could be purchased at retail stores. Carthens admitted that his role was to create the driver’s licenses and to mail them to the website’s customers, and that he believed some of the website’s clients were using the fake driver’s licenses to commit credit card fraud.
Carthens also admitted to his involvement in a separate scheme to use stolen personally identifiable information to steal tax refund money from the government. He used information stolen from a medical lab to file false and fraudulent tax returns, and worked with at least one other conspirator to receive the fraudulently claimed tax refund money.
The count of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with authentication features carries a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. The count of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 1, 2016.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
Carthens’ co-conspirators, Ricardo Rosario and Abraham Corcino, sold fake driver’s licenses over the Internet from October 2012 through August 2014. The fake driver’s licenses were used by criminal actors in connection with ‘cash out’ schemes where stolen credit card information was encoded on to counterfeit credit cards and used to steal cash from victims’ accounts.
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Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Cybercrime|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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