Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke fell victim to a nationwide identity theft ring after his wife’s purse was snatched from the back of her chair while she sat in a D.C. Starbucks, court documents show.
The purse held her Social Security card and checkbook. The alleged thief, who has been charged with being part of a ring that has stolen more than $2.1 million, used the information to cash $12,500 in checks from the Bernankes’ bank account.
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“Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year,” Bernanke said in a statement to Newsweek, which first reported the chairman’s link to the ring. “Our family was but one of 500 separate instances traced to one crime ring.”
Last month The Examiner reported how the identity theft ring used run-of-the-mill pickpocketing to steal the information it needed to grab cash from victims’ bank accounts.
In late July, one of the group’s ringleaders, Clyde Austin Gray Jr., pleaded guilty to his role in Alexandria’s federal court. Gray admitted to employing the pickpockets who operated in D.C., Chicago and Detroit, among other cities.
According to court documents, George Lee Reid admitted to police that he stole Anna Bernanke’s purse and used the identity he stole from another victim to cash the checks.
Prosecutors say Reid admitted to being involved in the scam since 2006. He reportedly told them that he had stolen as much as $50,000 in one day.
Court documents list six people whose identities were stolen by Reid and an unnamed co-conspirator who passed pickpocketed information to him.
Gray is the only one of 10 people charged in the ring to have pleaded guilty.
