The day after I pointed out how a USAO, Southern District of Florida press release failed to identify the medical practice from where patient data was stolen – and I named the facility – the same USAO office issued another press release today involving one of the other defendants in the conspiracy. And this time, they named the facility – the one I had named yesterday.
Today, they announced that Eltonya Wiley, 40, of Lady Lake, pled guilty for her participation in a wide-ranging identity theft scheme. Wiley was the last of six defendants to plead guilty in the case. As part of her guilty plea, Wiley admitted that she made unauthorized use of medical patients’ Social Security numbers in connection with ongoing identity theft. The government alleged, and Wiley agreed that at least 92 patients of Villages Endocopy near The Villages in Central Florida had their identities stolen by virtue of Wiley’s conduct while she was an employee at that medical facility.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 6, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach.
The scheme involved, in part, stealing the identities of patients at a medical facility in central Florida. Those identities were then used to file fraudulent federal income tax returns in the patients’ names seeking fraudulent refunds, and obtaining fraudulent credit cards which were then used to make fraudulent purchases.
I am pleased to see them naming the medical facility and would encourage them to name breached entities in all cases where the source of the stolen data has been identified.