FOLLOW US

In a California federal court on Monday, a former IT security manager for the U.S. Navy, Marquis Hooper, was sentenced to 65 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for his role in stealing and selling over 9,000 identities.

The nearly 5½-year prison term was reached through agreement between the prosecutors and Hooper. It falls on the lower end of the non-mandatory pre-sentence guidelines, and it incorporates a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.

Hooper confessed to various charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and identity theft, in March. This admission came a little over two years after he and his wife, Natasha Chalk, were indicted for their involvement in these crimes.

The sentencing recommendation by the prosecutors emphasized that while they acknowledged certain factors, such as Hooper's lack of a criminal history and his acceptance of responsibility, they found these insufficient to explain or justify the magnitude of his misconduct. In their view, as a Navy service member entrusted with safeguarding the nation's citizens, his breach of that trust by stealing their personally identifiable information for personal gain warranted a severe punishment.

Hooper not only orchestrated the scheme but directed other participants to sell the stolen personally identifiable information (PII) to anonymous buyers on the dark web, receiving Bitcoin valued at $160,000 in return.

As part of the operation, one member of the group created counterfeit driver's licenses and attempted to access a victim's bank account using the stolen PII.

Prosecutors revealed that Hooper, residing in California and Japan, falsely claimed to be conducting Navy background checks as he opened an account with a company that maintained a vast PII database. Subsequently, he added Chalk to the account, enabling her access to the same PII. Hooper's account was closed in December 2018 due to fraud suspicions. To circumvent this, he and his wife recruited an unindicted individual to open a new account under the same fraudulent guise Hooper had used previously.

When asked to provide additional paperwork from a superior to validate the need for the account, Hooper submitted counterfeit documents using a victim's identity to impersonate a Navy officer. However, prosecutors pointed out that even after the submission of these fraudulent signatures, the second account was never approved.

Chalk, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on the same day as Hooper, is scheduled for sentencing on November 20. Hooper expressed hope that his wife would not have to serve time in prison for her role in the scheme.