South Louisiana Men Sentenced to Federal Prison for Aggravated Identify Theft

LAFAYETTE, La. - United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Joshua Dunbar, 24, of St. Martinville, Louisiana, and Jaqualyne Etienne, 24, of Lafayette, have both been sentenced by United States District Judge David C. Joseph for aggravated identity theft.

Dunbar was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. Etienne was previously sentenced on February 27, 2024, to two years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. Dunbar and Etienne each pleaded guilty to one count of committing aggravated identify theft.

A federal investigation revealed that Dunbar and Etienne were involved in a scheme to use the personal identifying information (PII) of individuals to obtain the credit card accounts maintained by Synchrony Bank. Dunbar and Etienne used the PII of those individuals to request that a new credit card be issued for each of those accounts and sent to addresses in St. Martinville and New Iberia.  Dunbar and Etienne then used those credit cards to make several fraudulent purchases. 

Dunbar admitted at his guilty plea hearing that as a result of this fraudulent activity, he charged $66,421.43 using credit cards issued by Synchrony Bank and Etienne fraudulently charged $164,437.66 to those credit cards. Both defendants admitted to using the same method to acquire numerous credit cards from Synchrony Bank in the names of other real individuals and in each case, made fraudulent purchases.  

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Craig R. Bordelon.

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