A former Federal Emergency Management Agency employee assigned to help victims of natural disasters pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of more than
200 people to buy tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise from television shopping channels.
Robert George Davis, 44, of Southeast Washington, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He is likely to face four to seven years in prison, prosecutors said. His sentencing is scheduled for June 20.
Davis, who worked as a human services specialist at FEMA, and as a clerk at several D.C. mortgage companies between 2003 and 2007, stole personal information from loan applications, including victims of 2004 hurricanes, prosecutors said. Davis had access to Social Security numbers, occupations, credit histories, dates of birth, addresses and telephone numbers.
He used the information to open more than $156,000 in credit from companies such asthe Home Shopping Network, Shop NBC and QVC, and would use his home phone to order merchandise to be delivered to his home or addresses near his home so he could intercept the shipments, court documents said.
Davis made hundreds of telephone calls to open accounts, order merchandise and check on the status of deliveries.
Items ordered included diamond jewelry, digital cameras, DVDs, vacuum cleaners, lingerie and gourmet food such as steaks and lobsters, according to court documents. Davis kept the items for his own use or pawned the items, obtaining more than $24,000 in cash.
During a Dec. 4, 2007, search of Davis’ apartment at 2710 29th St. SE, Secret Service officials recovered the personal-identification information of more than 200 people in notebooks, papers and business records, court documents said. They also found order slips, catalogs and receipts in the names of the identity theft victims.
