OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Following a two-year investigation, Patrick Beaty of Pacific Marine Credit Union helped crack a case of a former Marine who had stolen the identity of 15 active duty Marines stationed in Iraq at the time of the theft. For his work, Beaty, Risk Management Officer with the credit union, was named as the State Civilian Investigator of the Year by the California Financial Crimes Investigators Association.
A licensed Private Investigator and a retired San Diego County Sheriffs Deputy with more than 28 years of law enforcement and investigative experience, Beatty discussed the case below with Credit Union Journal.
CUJ: What is your role/title at the credit union and what does it involve?
Beaty: The position is risk management officer, and it includes security and risk assessment. I investigate fraud, including both internal and external fraud and theft, and am a liaison with law enforcement agencies, federal, state, county and local, in the apprehension and conviction of suspects involved in fraudulent activity. I also assist in the recovery of losses.
CUJ: How did you first become aware suspicious activity was taking place, and tell us about the investigation, some of its twists and turns, and what was involved?
Beaty: On 11/23/05 I was assigned an Identity Theft case that occurred against a member’s account. The member, Christopher Clark was deployed to Iraq and his Power of Attorney Walter Clark noticed several unauthorized transactions and contacted Elaine Diaz, Call Center Supervisor for PMCU. Mrs. Diaz’s initial investigation revealed that someone had called into the PMCU Call Center with the member’s account number, Social Security number and enough personal information to convince the Call Center Operators that it was the member, and had money transferred out of the account and wired to several Western Union locations. The second transaction occurred on 10/25/05 and it appears the same suspect contacted PMCU call center with all the correct information again, and had another Western Union Wire transfer sent to a different location in Las Vegas. On 11/28/05 I sent Western Union a subpoena to produce business records for the above-mentioned transactions.
On 12/14/05 Elaine Diaz contacted me again and advised that she had another suspicious Western Union request from another member and that the profile and challenge response questions on his home banking account matched victim Clark’s. Because of the two similarities in each transaction we stopped the Western Union transaction and reversed the fees and transfer. We then ran a report that gave us a list of members who had been set up on home banking using the similar challenge response questions. Several of the questions had the same response that appeared to be generic and suspicious.
The report revealed 25 members who had the exact same responses. We then started pulling account history and statements for the 25 members, and noticed similarities in all the response challenges along with suspicious transactions. Also during the course of the investigation we were able to locate three Internet Provider addresses that were consistent with the opening and transaction requests for all 25 victims. I then located several ACH payments on several accounts that were paid on T-Mobile and Time Warner accounts and the names associated with the accounts.
We then determined that all 25 victims were members of the same military unit, based out of Camp Pendleton. We also suspected that the suspect in the theft was a Marine assigned to the unit, who may be an admin or disbursing clerk with access to all of the victim’s personal information. We then started looking at all the transaction records and I noticed that on the Western Union request receipt for 10/25/05 the telephone contact number was different than the first Western Union request contact number, which was the victim Clark’s actual home phone number. I called the number and was put into voice mail. The subject on the voice mail greeting was a male and he identified himself as Edgar. No message was left.
On 12/16/05 I sent Subpoena’s to produce business records to Cox Communication, Inc., Time Warner and T-Mobile requesting business records that would help lead to the identity if the suspect(s) in this case. I then contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on Camp Pendleton and advised them of the case and the status.
After reviewing the 25 suspected compromised accounts it was determined that there were 15 accounts that had fraudulent and unauthorized transactions. Our investigation determined that the suspect had obtained personal information about the victims and used this information to open unauthorized PMCU online banking accounts which made it possible for the suspect to pay bills, transfer money and have Western Union wire transfers sent. With the Western Union wire transfers it was determined that the suspect would call the Call Center and would be able to answer the challenge questions with the personal information that they had had illegally obtained.
They would then have money wired to themselves at various locations. Once the wire transfer was completed the suspect would then arrive at the Western Union satellite site and produce a counterfeit military identification card with his photo and the name and personal information of the victims. The suspect would then sign for the cash by forging the victim’s signature.
On Dec. 19, 2005 the case was turned over to NCIS with all documents, subpoenas and suspect information. During the next few days the suspect continued to communicate with the Call Center and myself in an attempt to have wire transfers sent to Las Vegas. On Dec. 21, NCIS advised me that they had identified a possible suspect as Edgar A. Tiradohermosillo, a former Marine who was an Admin Clerk assigned to the same unit prior to his discharge. I then search PMCU membership data records and located an account assigned to Edgar A. Tiradohermosillo
Editor’s Note: Edgar Alejandro Hermosillo was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury on fraud and identity theft charges for allegedly stealing money from the bank accounts of 15 United States Marines.
CUJ: What advice do you have for other credit unions facing similar situations?
Beaty: Unfortunately this was the result of a former Marine who had access to all of the victim’s personal information. Prior to his discharge from the military he took all this information, including blank military ID cards along with bank account and personal information, and took over the identity of these members. Our losses and the losses to the victims could have been close to $250,000.00 if we had not discovered this theft when we did.
