Identity Theft Criminal Prosecuted and Sentenced to Additional Year in Prison After Fleeing
A Haitian native who went on the lam for four years following a conviction and criminal prosecution of identity theft crimes has been re-sentenced and had an extra year added on to his original 55-month prison term as punishment for identity theft crimes.
Four years after his initial conviction for leading an identity theft ring earlier this decade, 31-year-old Ronald Hyppolite - who became a U.S. citizen and had lived in Irvington, New York - was handed down his sentence and identity theft criminal prosecution for breaking laws against identity theft before Federal District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh in Newark, New Jersey on Wednesday, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.
His sentencing and criminal prosecution wraps up a nearly decade-long identity theft ordeal involving Hyppolite, who was first put on trial for running an identity theft fraud scheme with his live-in girlfriend in 2002. The girlfriend, who was an employee at an affiliate of Weichert Realtors, would break laws against identity theft by providing stolen copies of customer credit reports that Hyppolite would use to hack into Weichert's computer system.
According to the state Department of Justice, between November 2002 and April 2003, Hyppolite and four accomplices were able to steal confidential information of approximately 3,774 customers of the real estate company and sell them to third parties for a profit.
Some identities were also utilized by the crime ring to open fraudulent credit reports to purchase between $120,000 and $200,000 of merchandise.
After the scheme was uncovered by police, Hyppolite pleaded guilty in October 2004 to stealing personal and confidential credit reports and using them for identity theft crimes and was sentenced to 55 months in prison in January 2005. The accomplices associated with the scheme each received 33 months in prison as punishment for their identity theft crimes.
However, left to voluntarily surrender himself into police custody, Hyppolite fled to Florida days after the identity theft sentencing and criminal prosecution where he lived under an alias until he was apprehended on July 10, 2009 by FBI Special Agents in Delray Beach.
