A federal grand jury indicted Robert Michael Stewart, 26, of Timonium, for identity theft in a scheme to sell stolen personal and financial information from his company.
Stewart intended to sell 325 folders of information he took from his employment at Residential Home Loan Centers LLC, a Pikesville mortgage company, according to court documents.
Initially, Stewart had more than 200 folders at his residence, according to the indictment.
Stewart was caught after a federal informant obtained three of the files Jan. 4, which included Social Security numbers, bank account and credit-card numbers, copies of driver?s licenses, tax statements, payroll and statement ofearnings, and bank account statements.
The next day, Stewart told the informant to sell 325 files for $50 each to an individual who would use the information for bank fraud and identity theft, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 10, the informant was present when Stewart removed additional files from the mortgage company office, and on Jan. 11, the informant paid Stewart $8,000 for a total of 330 files, which Stewart loaded into informant?s vehicle before accepting the money. FBI agents immediately arrested Stewart after the exchange and took possession of all the stolen files.
Stewart faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison for the identity theft charges. The indictment occurred Wednesday.
He has a detention hearing set for Jan. 26.
