IP: Ashcroft Seeks Tougher Law To Punish Identity Thieves

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 20:43:01 -0400

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24368-2002May2.html


washingtonpost.com

Ashcroft Seeks Tougher Law To Punish Identity Thieves

By Caroline E. Mayer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 3, 2002; Page E02


The Bush administration said yesterday that it will seek speedier trials
and tougher penalties for crimes involving identity theft.

Alarmed by increasing reports of identity theft -- the nonprofit Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse estimated that there are 500,000 to 700,000 cases
annually -- Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said he wants legislation to
make aggravated identity theft a crime, and to impose an additional two
years of prison time for offenders in the most serious cases. An additional
five years would be imposed for terrorist acts involving stolen identities.

"The Department of Justice is committed to seeing to it that criminals and
terrorists cannot find refuge in the identities of law-abiding citizens of
this country," Ashcroft said in a news conference.

The request for tougher penalties came as the Justice Department completed
a nationwide crackdown on crimes that involved stolen identities. U.S.
attorneys around the country expedited pending investigations and brought
73 criminal prosecutions against 135 people.

Since Congress established the offense of identity theft in October 1998,
2,223 criminal cases have been filed against 2,899 defendants.

Among the most recent cases announced yesterday, one individual was charged
with selling Social Security numbers on eBay. A hospital employee was
charged with stealing the identity of patients to obtain credit cards and
another individual was charged with stealing the identity of a company
executive to exercise options on 176,000 shares of Kmart stock in June
2001. The stock was sold for a profit of $212,000.

The call for tougher penalties won immediate support from a frequent critic
of Bush administration policies -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),
chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology, terrorism and
government. Feinstein is seeking legislation that would limit the use of
Social Security numbers as identification to make it harder for thieves to
obtain and use them to create phony documents and credit-card or bank
accounts. The administration has not yet said if it supports her proposal.



© 2002 The Washington Post Company



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experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'


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