Craig S. Morford
United States Attorney
Byron M. Jones
Assistant U.S. Attorney
BINYAMIN SCHWARTZ PLEADS GUILTY TO
AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT AND FRAUD
Nashville, TN - January 30, 2007 - Craig S. Morford, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and Sarah Beth Pulliam, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service Nashville Office, announced that Binyamin Schwartz, 28, of Oak Park, Michigan pled guilty yesterday to charges of identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud and wire fraud.
According to testimony at the guilty plea hearing, on June 6, 2006 Schwartz offered to sell the names, addresses, social security numbers, and dates of birth for 36,000 individuals to an undercover agent of the United States Secret Service. Schwartz expected to receive $25,000 in cash for this information. Schwartz negotiated the sale of this information over the Internet using an assumed identity. On June 22, 2006, Schwartz flew from Detroit, Michigan to Nashville, Tennessee to exchange the information for the cash and was arrested by agents of the Secret Service in Nashville. Schwartz had with him when he arrived in Nashville another database containing the same type of information for approximately 75,000 additional individuals.
Following his arrest, Schwartz stated that he had stolen these two databases from Sentry Insurance Company in Wisconsin for whom he was developing business software in his capacity as a business software consultant. Schwartz admitted that he had sold some of the information to one or two other individuals. Agents of the Secret Service later confirmed that Schwartz had sold the information for approximately 70 individuals to another individual.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 30, 2007.