MINNEAPOLIS -- Ten Twin Cities residents were federally indicted Wednesday, charged with stealing mail and using the identities of victims to create bank accounts and obtain cash.
The indictment charges Ricky W. Mariano, age 40, of Oakdale; Sarrah M. Vail, age 40; James Edward Freeman, age 19; and Vincent Robert Vail, age 18, all of White Bear Lake; James N. Hahne, age 35, and Clifton G. Evans, Jr., age 33, both of St. Paul; Benjamin J. Dolan, age 35, and Anne Marie Vail, age 46, both of Vadnais Heights; Jamie Marie Sylvester, age 34, of North St. Paul; and Jacob Charles Dutton, age 28, of Minneapolis, with one count of theft and receipt of stolen mail and one count of bank fraud conspiracy.
Prosecutors say from July of 2010 through July of 2011, the defendants stole mail from curbside mailboxes across Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties. The alleged purpose of their actions was to obtain and use personal information from the victims in order to acquire funds from their bank accounts. Personal information included names, birth dates, and bank account numbers, among other things.
To access the bank accounts of their victims, investigators say the defendants used a process known as "check washing," through which a chemical is used to erase certain details from checks while retaining other information, such as bank account numbers and routing numbers. In this case, the "washed" checks were then rewritten at various retail stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The indictment also alleges Mariano, Hahne, Dolan, and Dutton destroyed letter boxes known as blue collection boxes in order to obtain mail.
If convicted, the defendants face a potential maximum penalty of 30 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and five years on the mail theft charge. In addition, the potential maximum penalty on each count of bank fraud is 30 years, and the potential maximum penalty on each count of destruction of letter boxes is three years.
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