United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Virginia
Chuck Rosenberg - United States Attorney

ALEXANDRIA     NEWPORT NEWS      NORFOLK      RICHMOND

November 1 , 2006

Further Information Contact:
Deanna Warren
Phone: (757) 441-6331

Virginia Beach Woman Pleads Guilty to Stealing IDs and Passing Counterfeit Checks

(Norfolk, Virginia) – Alesha Hunt, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, pled guilty today to conspiring to possess and to use others’ means of identification in conjunction with passing counterfeit checks throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Chuck Rosenberg, United StatesAttorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced that Hunt will be sentenced onJanuary 29, 2007, by United States District Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. The offense carries a maximum penalty of up to fifteen years in jail, a $250,000 fine, and a three year term of supervised release.

According to court documents, Hunt came to the attention of local police in early April 2006, shortly after Chesapeake authorities arrested her co-conspirator, Sabrina Holman. A search of Holman’s residence led to the seizure of assorted merchandise, including televisions, computers, cameras, and jewelry that Hunt and Holman had purchased with counterfeit checks. After learning about Holman’s arrest, Hunt fled to Miami, FL, where she was arrested on April 25, 2006.

Hunt pled guilty to charges that, from November 2004 through April 2006, she illegally agreed with Holman and others to steal and to obtain lost identifications, and to impersonate the identity theft victims at various merchants. After obtaining the identifications, Hunt provided them to Holman, who used the identities to make counterfeit checks on her home computer. Holman then used and distributed the fake checks to Hunt and other conspirators who forged and passed the checks at various stores. The conspirators successfully passed hundreds of worthless checks in others’ names in Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. As a result, merchants suffered losses of over $200,000.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chesapeake Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Robert Krask prosecuted the case for the United States.