Former Chase Financial Corp. Employees Sentenced for Scheme to Defraud Chase Manhattan Bank and
Chase Financial Corporation

Emily M. Sweeney, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that on February 13, 2002, Patrice Williams, age 26, of 12700 Shaker Blvd., Apt. 714, Cleveland, Ohio 44120, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., to 12 months and 1 day in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons in connection with Williams’ recent computer fraud conviction in U.S. District Court.

Co-defendant, Makeebrah Turner, age 32, of 3537 East 147th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, was sentenced on January 8, 2002, by Judge Oliver to 12 months and 1 day in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons in connection with the offense.

On August 7, 2001, a federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, returned an indictment charging Makeebrah A. Turner and Patrice M. Williams each with two counts of computer fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1030(a)(4)and 1030(a)(2)(A).

Turner entered a guilty plea to Count 1 of the indictment on October 9, 2001. Williams entered a guilty plea to Count 1 of the indictment on November 21, 2001.

According to court document filed in the case, Turner and Williams each admitted that between approximately November 1999, and on or about December 12, 2000, in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, while employed by Chase Financial Corporation, 1500 W. 3rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio, they knowingly and with the intent to further a scheme to defraud Chase Manhattan Bank and Chase Financial Corporation, accessed one or more Chase Manhattan Bank and Chase Financial Corporation computer systems without authorization or in excess of their authorized access on said computer systems, thereby obtaining credit card account numbers and other customer account information pertaining to approximately sixty-eight (68) accounts, which they were not authorized to access in connection with their duties at Chase Financial Corporation. Turner and Williams admitted that the aggregate credit limits for the targeted accounts totaled approximately $580,700.00.

Turner and Williams further admitted that after fraudulently obtaining said credit card account numbers and customer account information, they distributed and transmitted said financial information to one or more individuals located in the Northern District of Georgia via facsimile transmission, who, in turn, used the credit card accounts and other financial information to fraudulently obtain goods and services valued at approximately $99,636.08, without the knowledge or consent of the account holders, Chase Manhattan Bank or Chase Financial Corporation.

Under the terms of written plea agreements between Turner, Williams and the government, Count 2 of the indictment, which charged a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(2)(A), was dismissed at the time of sentencing. Count 2 charged that between November 1999, and on or about December 12, 2000, Turner and Williams intentionally accessed one or more computer systems in excess of her authorized access, thereby obtaining information in a financial record of a financial institution, and obtaining information of a card issuer, as defined in Title 15, U.S.C., Section 1602(n), thereby obtaining information from protected computers for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain, and in furtherance of criminal violations of U.S. and Ohio law.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern, following an investigation by the Cleveland Office of the United States Secret Service.

• More information on: Turner's Plea
• More information on: Defendants' Indictment
• More information on: Computer Intrusion Cases
• More information on: Computer Crime

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