Two former New York City employees were sentenced to prison yesterday for identification fraud. Michael Wills, a former employee of the New York City Human Resources Administration, was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing copies of welfare recipients’ birth certificates and social security cards and selling them to another individual. Edward Jones, a former employee of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Vital Statistics was sentenced to eight months in prison for stealing parental identification information from birth certificates and selling such information to another individual.
Both individuals had previously pled guilty in Manhattan federal court.
According to statements made during the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings and documents filed in Manhattan federal court in this case, Wills, a clerical associate in an HRA job center, admitted that on numerous occasions in 2007 and 2008, he took copies of birth certificates and social security cards and sold them to another individual. In addition to imposing a sentence of two years in prison, U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones imposed a term of one year of supervised release.
Edward Jones, a clerical associated in the Bureau of Vital Statistics Corrections Unit admitted that, on numerous occasions in 2005 and continuing through 2008, he took the names of parents on those birth certificates and sold such names to another individual who he knew would use the parental information to fraudulently obtain birth certificates and other identification documents. In addition to imposing a prison sentence of eight months, Judge Daniels also imposed a term of two years’ supervised release.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York