First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced Monday that a former King County Jail inmate and his accomplice were convicted today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for a fraud scheme targeting sick veterans.
According to a press release, the pair would impersonate Veterans Affairs staff to get credit and debit card numbers.
Darryl Lamont Young, 47, 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 conviction came at the end of a 4-day trial and 6 hours of deliberation by the jury.
Both defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft.
Together, they were convicted of six counts of aggravated identity theft.
In the statement, the Justice Department said that Young is in custody while Williams remains on bond. U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead has not yet scheduled a sentencing date.
While incarcerated, Young used the jail’s free phone system to call a local Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center. Because the jail’s automated inmate warning didn’t play on these calls, he was able to trick the local VA into transferring him to out-of-state VA hospitals under the guise of being an employee.
Once connected, Young used his knowledge of military hospital operations to pose as a VA staff member (such as “Jason in bed control”). He then convinced staff to give him confidential information on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients, including their names and emergency contacts.
According to court documents, once Young had information, he and Williams would place a three-way call to the veteran or the veteran’s emergency contact. Young would pose as a VA employee, claiming to need 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, according to the statement.
According to the department, 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.
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.”