ALBANY, NEW YORK – A jury yesterday decided to convict Guy Cuomo aka “John Monaco,” 54, of Frederick, Maryland, of computer fraud, social security number abuse, grave identity theft and related allegations of conspiracy for his role in a plot for sale of information improperly obtained from the New York State Department of Labor and from recruitment agencies in other states.
The announcement was made by US Attorneys Carla B. Freedman and Jonathan Mellone, Special Representative, New York Area, US Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (USDOL-OIG).
US Attorney Carla B. Freedman stated, “Guy Cuomo and his co-conspirators ran an identity theft boiler room. They used personally identifiable information to trick government employment agencies into revealing the last known places of employment for thousands of victims. The defendants then sold this workplace information to debt collection agencies for nearly $ 1 million in revenue. Yesterday’s conviction means, in all respects, that Guy Cuomo will be jailed for his leadership in this despicable scheme. ”
USDOL-OIG Special Agent in charge Jonathan Mellone stated, “As the jury found, Guy Cuomo worked with his co-conspirators to systematically create unemployment insurance accounts in the computer systems of several government employment agencies using social security numbers and other personal identifiers of ignorant victims. In these accounts, Cuomo and his co-conspirators stole the victims’ proprietary employment information and sold that data commercially. Yesterday’s conviction and previous confessions of guilt in this case are evidence of our firm’s unwavering commitment to investigate and bring to justice those who endanger the integrity of the unemployment insurance system. “
Evidence in Cuomo’s 5-day trial showed that Cuomo worked for and ran Jason “JR” Trowbridge companies in Frederick, Maryland, including Paymerica Corporation. Paymerica researched where alleged debtors worked and sold the employer information – place of work information or “POE” – to debt collection agencies and companies that sold information to debt collection agencies. In the debt collection industry, the process is known as “skip tracing”.
To get the job location information, Cuomo and other members of the conspiracy pretended to be the debtors, created thousands of online unemployment insurance applications on behalf of the debtors and with the debtors’ personal identifiers, including social security numbers, and filled in the applications to the point where each debtor’s last known place of employment appeared. After Paymerica confirmed that the debtors were working for the relevant employers, Paymerica sold the job location information for about $ 90 per debtor. Over the course of approximately three years, Paymerica made nearly $ 1 million selling the stolen workplace information.
Cuomo, Trowbridge, and other conspirators have taken a number of steps to hide their activities from government and law enforcement agencies, including using Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, to mask the Internet Protocol addresses that are used to access and fill in the Unemployment insurance claims on behalf of the debtor. The evidence showed that the program included attempts to obtain location information for up to 200,000 people from all 50 states, and that Paymerica sold location information for at least 12,000 people from 40 states.
If convicted on March 16, 2022 before senior US District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy, Cuomo faces a mandatory 2-year prison sentence for serious identity theft and up to 20 years in prison for the remaining charges. His co-defendants plead guilty to the following charges and face the following terms of imprisonment if convicted:
|
defendant |
Fees) |
Maximum sentence in prison |
|
Jason “JR” Trowbridge aka “Ted Frost”, 42 years old, from Frederick, Maryland |
Conspiracy, Social Security Number Abuse, Serious Identity Theft |
Agreed prison sentence of 39 months subject to the approval of the court |
|
Robin Chapin aka “Thomas Price”, 63 years old, from Frederick, Maryland |
Computer fraud conspiracy, gaining access to a protected computer and obtaining information, aggravated identity theft |
Two years for serious identity theft, maximum penalty of 10 years on remaining fees |
|
Rebecca Fogle aka “Roxanne Morris” and “Jessica Felton”, 27 years old, from Woodsboro, Maryland |
Computer fraud conspiracy, gaining access to a protected computer and obtaining information, aggravated identity theft |
Two years for serious identity theft, maximum penalty of 10 years on remaining fees |
|
Shamair Brison aka “Felicia Carter”, 36 years old, from Frederick, Maryland |
Serious identity theft |
2 years |
|
Sarah Bromfield aka “Nicole Wagner”, 41 years old, from Frederick, Maryland |
Serious identity theft |
2 years |
|
Anna Hardy aka “Sarah Thomas”, 68 years old, from Frederick, Maryland |
Serious identity theft |
2 years |
A defendant is sentenced by a judge based on the law the defendant is accused of violating, U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.
The case was investigated by USDOL-OIG with the assistance of the New York State Department of Labor, Office of Special Investigations, and is being followed up by US assistant attorneys Joshua R. Rosenthal and Cyrus PW Rieck. The case was also indicted by US Assistant Attorney Wayne A. Myers.
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