ID Theft Ring Included City Employees

"In a six-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors assert a Seattle Municipal Court employee passed account information into an identity theft ring in which four people are presently charged.

"Federal prosecutors claim Diamond Wendell Alexander Jr. and Crystal Loren Lee recruited others to copy credit card information from their places of employment and forward that information to them.

"Alexander and Lee would then use that credit card information to make purchases, chiefly Wal-Mart gift cards, according to prosecutors statements to the court. In total, they attempted to fraudulently charge more than $300,000 in gift cards and other merchandise using `skimmed` credit cards.

"Among those recruited for the scheme was a Seattle Municipal Court employee who handled payments, prosecutors allege. That employee would then pass on credit card numbers -- referred to by prosecutors as `access device information` -- to Alexander and Lee.

"Identified only by initials in court documents, the city employee is considered an unindicted co-conspirator in the scheme.

"`The Seattle Municipal Court employee would print access device information pertaining to people who used their cards to pay for traffic tickets and other transactions with the court,` according to a grand jury indictment filed Wednesday."

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