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Working with others, Alexis Taylor, 32, bought a “significant amount of stolen personal identifying information via the dark web, including bank account information and online security question answers,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachel A. Honig said.
She then used the information to access victim accounts in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere, Honig said.
Taylor and her associates went to the victims’ banks and impersonated them to withdraw money, the U.S. attorney said.
She also called the banks to request wire transfers, Honig said.
To top it off, Taylor went to victims’ homes to intercept debit cards and other financial documents from the mail, she said.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Closter police investigated, then notified federal authorities.
Rather than go to trial, Taylor accepted a deal from the government, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in exchange for leniency at sentencing.
Taylor must spend just about all of the five years and three months she was sentenced to on Tuesday because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez sentenced her to four years of supervised release and scheduled a May 10 restitution hearing.
Honig credited special agents of the U.S. Secret Service with the investigation leading to the plea and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Torntore of her Cybercrimes Unit in Newark.
She also thanked members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Closter Police Department for their assistance.
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