Federal prosecutors charged the chief counsel in the Washington state field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with wire fraud and identity theft. The charges stem from an alleged scheme to steal the identity of immigrants being processed and then use that information to defraud banks and credit card companies.
Prosecutors assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice Public Integrity Section in Washington, DC, alleged that Raphael Sanchez, chief legal counsel for ICE in the Washington field office, used his government email account to send copies of the identification documents of at least seven immigrants over a four-year period to his personal Yahoo! email account, according to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas. He then allegedly used that information to defraud financial institutions including American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Discover, and JPMorgan Chase.
In one incident, prosecutors state that Sanchez emailed a copy of a Chinese immigrant’s light bill, U.S. Permanent Legal Resident card, and the biographical page of his Chinese passport to himself. He then allegedly used this information to obtain financial gains from U.S. financial institutions. Prosecutors claim Sanchez repeated this process on at least seven times between October 2013 and October 2015, the indictment states.
The identity theft victims are reported to be individuals who were in various stages of immigration proceedings, the felony information document states.
A report by the Associated Press notes that Sanchez resigned from the immigration law enforcement agency on Monday.
Prosecutors use a felony information document in cases where the defendant waives his right to an indictment.
Breitbart Texas reached out to ICE officials in Seattle for more information about the case. A response was not immediately available.
The AP reported that Sanchez is scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday to enter a plea.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Gab, and Facebook.
Raphael Sanchez Felony Information by Bob Price on Scribd
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