A former U.S. Army civilian working in South Korea pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in an international fraud and identity-theft scheme that stole millions from U.S. service members and veterans, the Department of Justice said.
Las Vegas native Frederick Brown, 38, is a former civilian medical records administrator for the U.S. Army at the 75th Medical Brigade in Yongsan Garrison, South Korea.
A Nevada man has pleaded guilty to stealing the personal identifying information of thousands of military members, including names, social security numbers, DOD ID numbers, dates of birth, and contact information.
(blog.ssa.gov)
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Farrer in San Antonio Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
He admitted that between July 2014 and September 2015, he stole the personal identifying information of thousands of military members, including their names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and contact information, according to a DOJ press release.
Brown said he gave this data to a man named Robert Wayne Boling Jr., which Boling and others exploited in various ways to access Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefits sites and to steal millions of dollars.
Boling, a U.S. citizen, conspired with Philippines-based co-defendants – Australian citizen Allan Albert Kerr and South Korean citizen Jongmin Seok – to use the stolen information to unlawfully access benefits information online from a DOD portal, the DOJ said. The benefits information allegedly enabled the men to compromise military members’ bank accounts and veterans’ benefits payments.
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Boling is accused of then working with a man named Trorice Crawford to find individuals who would accept stolen funds into their bank accounts, which were then sent through international wire remittance services to the defendants.
Boling, Crawford, Kerr, and Seok have all been charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, according to the DOJ.
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If convicted, Brown faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each conspiracy charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2020 before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio.
