Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Reynaldo Jimenez was sentenced to 42 months in prison for theft of identity information belonging to over 35 active duty U.S. military service members he then used to steal pay due to those service members. United States District Judge John G. Koeltl imposed the sentence in Manhattan federal court.
According to the Information, Complaint, and statements made in court in connection with Jimenez’s guilty plea and sentencing:
From 2005 to March 2008, Jimenez served as an active duty Finance Technician in the U.S. Army where his responsibilities included helping military personnel with payroll issues. Jimenez assisted some service members in accessing their payroll information through “myPay,” a military website that directed where their pay would be deposited. By assisting soldiers with their myPay accounts, he obtained access to the social security numbers and myPay passwords of a number of military personnel. Jimenez kept a list of a number of those social security numbers and passwords.
Following March 2008, Jimenez, who left his duty station in South Korea without the Army’s permission, used some of the social security numbers and passwords he had kept to log onto various soldiers’ myPay accounts and to change information in those accounts. As part of his scheme, he obtained two false driver’s licenses and opened debit card accounts in names other than his own, into which he routed some of the military
victims’ pay. From approximately April through September 2008, he attempted to steal over $35,000 from more than 35 active duty military service members, and was successful in stealing approximately $6,500.
Jimenez, 32, pleaded guilty on April 22, 2009 to one count of identity theft, one count of access device fraud, one count of fraud in connection with protected computers, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Koeltl ordered Jimenez to serve three years of supervised release, forfeit
$6,557.47, and pay to the Government $6,557.47 in restitution.