Jorge Luis Silva-Davalos Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud and Identity Theft

Jorge Luis Silva-Davalos, age 29, of Virginia Beach, pled guilty today to aggravated identity theft and participating in a scheme to defraud Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU). Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Alex J. Turner, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Norfolk Field Division, made the announcement after the plea before United States District Judge Mark S. Davis in Norfolk. Silva-Davalos is scheduled to be sentenced on January 22, 2009, and faces up to 30 years for the financial institution fraud plus a mandatory consecutive two year term of imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, between December 2007 and February 2008, SilvaDavalos and others executed a scheme to defraud financial institutions, including NFCU, a federally chartered and insured credit union. The scheme included creating bogus car loans using the stolen identities of patients from a local hospital and neighbors of a member of the scheme. The patients’ information was obtained by a member of the scheme who worked at the hospital, and the neighbors’ information was obtained by theft of correspondence from mail boxes. Using the stolen identity information and instructions from Silva-Davalos, who had past experience in obtaining fraudulent car loans, the schemers applied online to NFCU to purchase vehicles that did not exist. The schemers completed four loan applications totaling $130,500 and obtained $61,000 from NFCU before an NFCU employee became suspicious about a person trying to cash a cashier’s check that represented the proceeds of one of the fraudulent loans and called Virginia Beach police. The police arrested the person trying to cash the check and the scheme unraveled. Two other members of the scheme, Nichole Easton and Paul Stephen Mears, have already pled guilty. Easton is scheduled to be sentenced on December 8, 2008 and Mears is scheduled to be sentenced on January 5, 2009.