Richmond Couple Charged in Identity Theft Case
02/14/2014
Richmond Couple Charged in Identity Theft Case
43 counts of identity theft and fraud charges were filed in Marin County against Jason Ward and Ereka Wilkerson on Monday for a series of identity theft cases spanning four Bay Area Counties: Marin, Solano, Contra Costa, and Alameda.
The case was filed through the California Attorney General’s eCrime Unit.
On December 31, 2012, Jason Ward stole $6.7 million in checks that had been deposited in a drop box outside a Charles Schwab office in Corte Madera. That burglary was caught on video surveillance from a neighboring building, and NC3TF Detectives recovered many of the checks along with manufactured identity documents from a probation search at the defendants’ apartment in Richmond in February of 2013 while following up on unrelated Identity Theft case involving these suspects.
Computer forensic analysis and follow up by detectives at the NC3TF resulted in evidence of dozens of additional identity theft victims.
On December 27, 2013, Wilkerson was arrested by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department driving a rented U-Haul trailer full of identity theft equipment. Ward, a passenger in the U-Haul, was released at the scene, but evidence in the trailer indicated he and Wilkerson had been manufacturing identity documents and using them to purchase goods throughout the Bay Area. Follow-up investigation led to multiple additional counts of identity theft.
In early January of 2014, Ward was identified by Nordstrom employees as having made fraudulent purchases in Walnut Creek with stolen identity information, and on January 22, 2014, Fairfield Police arrested both Ward and Wilkerson for using stolen personal identifying information to obtain credit for an auto loan at CarMax. Both suspects had multiple pieces of fraudulent identity, identity manufacturing equipment, and a storage locker in El Cerrito full of computer equipment and personal identifying information of local victims.
Both suspects remain in custody awaiting arraignment on consolidated charges in Marin County.