Former U.S. Army Finance Technician Pleads Guilty to Theft of Soldiers’ Social Security Numbers and Pay

LEV L. DASSIN, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and KENNETH SIEGLER, Resident Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service ("DOD-OIG/DCIS"), announced that REYNALDO JIMENEZ pleaded guilty today to charges arising out of his theft of identity information belonging to over 35 active duty United States military service members and his use of that information to steal pay due to those service members. According to the Information, Complaint, and statements made in Court in connection with JIMENEZ's guilty plea:

JIMENEZ served as an active duty Finance Technician in the United States Army from September 2005 until March 2008. As a Financial Technician, JIMENEZ's responsibilities included helping military personnel with payroll issues. Military personnel were able to access their payroll information through the military's online "myPay" website and could direct where their pay should be deposited using that website. JIMENEZ assisted some service members in accessing their payroll information through myPay. By assisting soldiers with their myPay accounts, JIMENEZ obtained access to the social security numbers and myPay passwords of a number of military personnel. JIMENEZ kept a list of a number of those social security numbers and passwords.

In early March 2008, JIMENEZ left his duty station in South Korea without the Army's permission and was designated Absent Without Leave ("AWOL"). The following month, JIMENEZ used some of those social security numbers and passwords to log onto various soldiers' myPay accounts and to change information in those accounts. In particular, he directed the soldiers' pay to be deposited into bank and debit accounts that he controlled. As part of his scheme, JIMENEZ obtained two false driver's licenses and opened debit card accounts in other names, into which he routed some of the military victims' pay. From approximately April through September 2008, JIMENEZ attempted to steal over $35,000 from more than 35 active duty military service members, and was successful in stealing approximately $6,500. JIMENEZ was arrested on September 16, 2008 by campus police at the Bronx Community College while he was in the process of accessing a service member's account. At the time of his arrest JIMENEZ possessed a number of false identification cards and a number of social security numbers, eighteen of which belonged to active duty service members.

JIMENEZ, 31, pleaded guilty this morning before United States District Judge JOHN G. KOELTL to one count of identity theft, one count of access device fraud, one count of fraud in connection with protected computers, and one count of aggravated identity theft. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. before Judge KOELTL, and faces a maximum sentence of 37 years in prison.

MR. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bronx Community College's Department of Public Safety for their assistance in this case.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office's Major Crimes and Computer Hacking/Intellectual Property Unit. Assistant United States Attorney AMIE N. ELY is in charge of the prosecution.