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Michael J. Sternquist, a/k/a “John Torchwood,” 26, entered his guilty plea with U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton. The judge ordered that he be held without bail until she sentences him on Oct. 8.
The conviction violates the terms of supervised released after Sternquist served prison time for a July 2007 identification document fraud conviction in Ohio.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Sternquist admitted that between September 2009 and February 12, 2010, he created computerized templates for false identification documents, including various state driver’s licenses and federal law enforcement credentials, and sold them over the Internet.
Sternquist also admitted that the templates he created included authentication features that issuing entities use to determine whether identification documents are counterfeit.
He also gave buyers instructions on how to print the identification documents, including the authentication features, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.
Fishman credited the Trenton field office of the U.S. Secret Service, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General in Edison, the United States Postal Inspection Service in Newark, the Fort Monmouth Police Department, and the Hoboken Police Department for helping build the case against Sternquist.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric M. Schweiker of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton handled the prosecution.
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