Sentencing handed down for fraud and ID theft

An Osceola woman was sentenced in federal court yesterday for her involvement in a bank fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
 
Lindsey Scott, 23, was sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
 
A co-defendant, David Riili, also was charged for the schemes. He was sentenced July 30 to four years and nine months in federal prison without parole, with that sentence running consecutively to five felony sentences imposed by the state of Missouri for unrelated conduct, the release said.
 
The duo admitted to stealing checks, credit cards and other mail from business and residential mailboxes in southwest Missouri. During the scheme, which lasted Sept. 13–Nov. 22, 2011, involved checks totaling $44,716, the release said. Scott and Riili altered and forged the stolen checks, adding the names of other individuals to the payee lines and cashing or depositing the stolen checks into Riili’s bank account.

They also admitted to stealing credit cards from the mail and using them to make unauthorized purchases at businesses in the Springfield area. Court documents show Scott and Riili were arrested after Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers responded to a one-vehicle accident on Missouri Highway 76 in Stone County. Riili’s vehicle had left the roadway and struck a tree in the woods. Though Riili and his passenger, Scott, were transported by ambulance, a trooper followed blood trails from the vehicle to a pile of leaves in the woods. The officer dug through the leaves and found an envelope of checks made out to various businesses and a trash bag containing stolen mail from throughout southwest Missouri, the release said.
 
The case, which was investigated by the Highway Patrol and U.S. Postal Inspection Services, was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Oliver and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney.