NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment Friday charging a Colorado man with a loan fraud and identity theft scheme.
According to the indictment, 44-year-old Anthony Britton, of Lakewood, Colorado, participated in a scheme to use stolen identification information to obtain fraudulent personal and vehicle loans through Langley Federal Credit Union.
In 2015 and 2016,the indictment says LFCU received a number of online membership and consumer loan applications in the names of stolen identities and approved and issued the requested memberships and loans before determining that they had been sought using the stolen personal identifying information of others. LFCU disbursed loan proceeds via checks and transfers into the checking and savings accounts opened through these fraudulent applications.
Vehicle loan proceeds were disbursed by checks made payable to individuals posing as vehicle sellers, while personal loan proceeds were disbursed to LFCU accounts opened in connection with the fraudulent loan applications and transferred to accounts of others, including Britton. The indictment alleges that conspirators then accessed and withdrew the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds and routed them to other accounts to Britton's benefit.
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Britton is charged in a 10-count indictment with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years on the bank fraud charges and a mandatory consecutive term of two years on the aggravated identity theft charges.
