Cahokia, Ill. – Isaac Sanders, age 40, of Cahokia, Illinois, has been sentenced to serve 12 months and a day in federal prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sanders previously pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2020. Sanders and his co-conspirator, Tamecia Buckley, used the stolen identities and social security numbers of real people to open utility accounts for electric and gas services at Sanders’ properties. The victims did not live there and did not consent to the scheme. The bills all came to Sanders’ address, so the victims had no way of knowing the financial damage being wrought in their names. After bills went unpaid, and services were shut down again, Sanders would simply pay Buckley to open a new account using a different stolen identity.
All told, Sanders stole, used, and discarded the identities of six different people from 2014 to 2017. On one occasion, Sanders called the utility company pretending to be the son of one victim and falsely claimed the victim was in the hospital.
In addition to his term of imprisonment, Sanders was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and full restitution in the amount of $5,213.83. His sentence also includes a three-year term of supervised release. For her roles in this and other fraud-and-identity-theft schemes, Buckley was prosecuted separately and received a 75-month prison sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service.
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