LifeLock Blog

Laura Bustamante used her job as an eligibility specialist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services to steal the identities of roughly 100 of the agency’s clients, and giving the information of 33 clients to two other people.

Their victims gave their personal information to the agency while applying for food stamps, financial aid, childcare and Medicaid. The crimes took place between September 2007 and January 2008.

Bustamante and her accomplices opened instant credit lines or obtained credit cards with the stolen information.

Once she had the clients’ addresses, she would determine whether she could access to their mailboxes. If she could, she used their personal information to submit credit card applications and either stole the cards from the victims’ mailboxes when they arrived, or had them sent to her boyfriend’s mother’s address.

Bustamante, 34, pleaded guilty to unlawful access of a protected computer and aggravated identity theft and was sentenced to 36 months in a federal prison. She must also make nearly $70,000 in restitution to Workforce Services and her other victims.

Her accomplices also pleaded guilty to using the clients’ identities. Michelle Rae Chapman, 32, received a sentence of 36 months in federal prison. Joshua Smith, 32, will be sentenced next week for his participation in the crimes.

Chapman and Smith were arrested at a hotel January 2008 when Motor Vehicle officers discovered counterfeit state ID cards, a large amount of stolen mail, credit cards, credit card member agreements, credit card PINs, credit reports and two laptops.

Smith and Chapman directed the officers to Bustamante.