Pair convicted for scheme to defraud seriously ill veterans by calling medical facilities to steal personal information

Seattle - A former King County Jail inmate and his accomplice were convicted today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for their scheme to target seriously ill veterans for fraud, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. 47-year-old Darryl Lamont Young was convicted of all 14 counts in the indictment while his co-defendant, 29-year-old Aqeelah Ngiesha Williams, was convicted of 12 counts. The jury deliberated about six hours following a four-day trial. Both defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft. Both were convicted of six counts of aggravated identity theft. Young was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and Williams was convicted of four counts of wire fraud. Young remains in custody while Williams remains on bond. U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead has not yet scheduled a sentencing date.

According to the records in the case and testimony at trial, Young, while incarcerated, used the jail phone system to place calls to the local Veterans Affairs medical center. These calls were free and the local VA medical center did not receive the jail's announcement that the call was from an inmate. Impersonating a VA employee, Young would then ask to be transferred to out-of-state medical facilities. Because the local VA transferred the call, the out-of-state medical center did not know that the call was from an inmate. Once connected to the out-of-state medical center, Young posed as a VA employee - "Jason in bed control" or "Travis" in "patient registration"-who needed information about the patients currently in the Intensive Care Unit, including their names and the names and phone numbers of their emergency contact person. Having served in the military, Young had some understanding of VA hospital operations.

Once Young had information about a seriously ill veteran, he would call Williams who placed a three-way call to the veteran or the veteran's emergency contact. Young would pretend to be a VA employee who needed the veteran's credit or debit card information to deposit COVID stimulus benefits into the veteran's bank account. Once Young and Williams had the veterans' card information, they used it to deposit funds into Young's commissary and jail call accounts.

Young and Williams targeted more than 30 VA and non-VA medical facilities and targeted more than 60 victims. They attempted 130 fraudulent transactions on victim accounts and obtained about $8,300 from the scheme.

In closing argument Assistant U.S. Attorney Sok Tea Jiang told the jury "This was a shared plan, a shared purpose, a shared role-using fraud to steal from vulnerable victims. These defendants forced their way into the hospital through the phone lines with lies and deception."

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft is punishable by two years in prison to run consecutive to any other sentence imposed in the case.

The case is being investigated by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. (VA-OIG) and the United States Secret Service (USSS).

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Yunah Chung and Sok Tea Jiang.