A former receptionist for two medical doctors in downtown Washington has pleaded guilty to stealing the personal information of 37 patients as part of her role in a $2.1 million identity theft ring that included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke among its victims.
Makieta Leake worked for Drs. Stanley Lugerner and Marc Shepard from January 2008 through that December, court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court said. During that time, prosecutors say, the 36-year-old Maryland woman’s co-conspirators used the patients’ information she sold them to steal $849,197.
Calls to the doctors’ office at 2021 K St. NW, were not returned Tuesday.
The nationwide conspiracy often employed pickpockets for the personal information it used to empty victims’ bank accounts. Bernanke fell into the conspiracy’s clutches when his wife’s pocketbook was stolen by an alleged ring member from a District Starbucks in August 2008. In all, prosecutors say, the conspiracy ensnared 500 victims and accounts at least 10 financial institutions.
Leake, according to court documents, was one of several “corrupt employees at professional offices” to have worked with convicted ringleader Clyde Austin Gray, also known as “Big Head.”
During her year as the doctors’ receptionist, Leake met with Gray 20 times, she admitted. At each meeting she handed over patients’ information gleaned by photocopying personal checks, and retrieving their birthdays and Social Security numbers from files. In return, Gray paid Leake between $200 and $500 for each victim’s information.
Gray then took that information and used it to create fake Maryland driver’s licenses containing a victim’s information with a picture of another member of the conspiracy, court documents said. The pictured co-conspirator then used the bogus license to drain cash from bank accounts, sometimes by cashing checks stolen from other victims by pickpockets.
About 40 percent of the conspiracy’s stolen cash is traceable to Leake, prosecutors said.
Leake faces up to 30 years in prison when she’s sentenced Dec. 18. Prosecutors have charged 10 others in the scheme. So far four of those 10, including Gray, have pleaded guilty.
