The Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted Robert Wayne Boling Jr., Fredrick Brown, Trorice Crawford, Allan Albert Kerr, and Jongmin Seok for “coordinating an identify-theft and fraud scheme targeting servicemembers and veterans.” The indictment, which was unsealed on Aug. 21, alleges the individuals – who are based both in the Philippines and the United States – stole personal identifying information (PII) of thousands of military members, and used the PII to access Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefits sites and steal millions of dollars. The scheme began in 2014 when Brown, then a civilian employee at a U.S. Army installation, stole thousands of military members’ PII, including names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and Department of Defense identification numbers. Brown then provided that information to Boling, Kerr, and Seok who used the information to “compromise a Department of Defense portal designed to enable military members to access benefits information online.” Once they compromised the portal, the defendants allegedly accessed benefits information and either stole or attempted to steal millions of dollars from military members’ bank accounts, as well as veterans’ benefits payments.
