Federal authorities announced that two men have been charged in connection with their alleged roles in a scheme that used stolen identities to obtain more than $450,000 in disaster loans from the Small Business Administration. Roughly $250,000 of that was used to purchase iPhones for resale. These men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Hector Garcia has also been charged with aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors claim that Garcia opened a fraudulent banking accounting using the stolen identity of a U.S. citizen. This bank account was linked to other fraudulent accounts that were set up to receive the SBA loans. Edwin Acevedo, the other man being charged, then distributed debit cards linked to those accounts to other accomplices. These cards were then used to launder to the loans through the purchase of the iPhones, which were resold. Authorities says that Garcia also wired a portion of the funds to the Dominican Republic.
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