A Rockville Centre woman pleaded guilty in Nassau County Court on Oct. 11 to theft and fraud charges stemming from phony Craigslist ads for nonexistent jobs and apartments, according to District Attorney Kathleen Rice.
Susan Pemberton, 43, was charged with stealing hundreds of identities nationwide and using them to defraud the state of more than $500,000 by filing more than 250 false state income tax returns. Pemberton and her codefendant, Cynthia Sibert, 23, of Roslyn, were also charged with using the identities to steal more than $75,000 by applying for bank loans and credit cards.
Pemberton pleaded guilty to grand larceny, scheme to defraud, offering a false instrument for filing and identity theft, and faces up to two to four years in prison at her Jan. 23 sentencing.
According to Rice, Pemberton and Sibert placed ads on Craigslist between February 2010 and October 2011 for employment opportunities and apartments that did not exist. The victims who answered the ads were sent applications that asked for their names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers.
The district attorney also accused Sibert of using her job as a home health care aide to steal the identities of elderly people in her care and open credit cards in their names.
Search warrants for the investigation, which began in early 2011, uncovered hundreds of documents containing victims’ personal information and tax refund amounts.
“More than 250 victims were discovered in 30 states,” said Thomas Mattox, commissioner of the State Department of Taxation and Finance. “These defendants preyed upon the elderly, the infirm and those seeking employment to obtain their personal identification and use it for their own benefit. We are pleased this criminal activity has been aggressively investigated and prosecuted.”
The victims who attempted to file New York state tax returns often had their returns rejected, and out-of-state victims reported that their credit scores were negatively affected, Rice said.
“These women were nothing more than two small-time scam artists who preyed on hardworking people looking for a job,” Rice said. “My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those who steal the identities of others for their own criminal gain. I want to thank the State Department of Taxation and Finance for their invaluable contributions to this investigation.”
