Nevada man created 8K fraudulent online accounts with stolen identities: Feds

A Nevada man who admitted to using stolen identities to create more than 8,000 fraudulent online accounts to commit a $3.5 million fraud scheme was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, three years supervised release, and 100 hours of community service, U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson announced.

Kenneth Gilbert Gibson, 47, of Reno was sentenced July 30 by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du. He previously pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud, filing a false tax return, and aggravated identity theft. In addition to the prison term, he agreed to pay approximately $1 million in restitution and a $3.5 million forfeiture judgment.

The U.S. Justice Department provided details of the allegations.

Between 2012 and 2017, Gibson created a sophisticated scheme to steal the identities of multiple victims from a database in Reno. He used the stolen identities to create approximately 8,000 unauthorized and fraudulent online accounts, credit accounts, bank accounts, and prepaid cards.

He would use those fraudulent accounts to transfer, deposit, and send approximately $3.5 million to himself via hard copy checks and through electronic transactions to approximately 500 bank accounts and pre-paid debit cards owned and under his control.

In addition, he admitted to filing a false federal income tax return for the 2013 tax year. He did not include approximately $1,049,070 of taxable income he received from the fraud scheme.

The case was a joint investigation by a Task Force with members from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, IRS, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Reno Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Baldwin Carry prosecuted the case.

If your personal information is stolen, make a report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.identitytheft.gov or by phone at 1-877-438-4338. For identity theft prevention tips and free resources visit www.ftc.gov/idtheft