Repeat Fraudster Sentenced to 69 Months for Identity Theft and Bank Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Charles E. Poole III, 48, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 69 months' imprisonment, five years of supervised release, and victim restitution of more than $1 million by United States District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl for orchestrating a sprawling identity theft and bank fraud scheme. Judge Schmehl imposed this term of imprisonment to run consecutive to the 32-to-64-year sentence the defendant is currently serving for an unrelated attempted murder conviction in Delaware County.

The defendant was charged by indictment in June of 2023 and pleaded guilty last September to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identification document fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, two counts of bank fraud, and two counts of access device fraud.

As detailed in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, from about February 2018 through February 2020, Poole orchestrated a scheme by which he and his co-schemers acquired stolen personally identifiable information and other means of identification, including names, credit card information, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, and credit histories, of persons located in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, including elderly individuals, all without the victims' knowledge and consent.

Poole then recruited a number of co-schemer "runners" who, at Poole's direction, and posing as the victims, would enter banks, lenders, and local businesses to obtain loans, apply for credit, and purchase merchandise in the victims' names, without their knowledge. Court records show that Poole began this scheme while on supervised release from a prior federal conviction for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

In total, Poole caused over $100,000 of actual losses to more than a dozen businesses and financial institutions.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew T. Newcomer and John Iannacone.