Charles E. Poole III, 48, of Philadelphia, was sentenced on July 22 to 69 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and more than $1 million in restitution for orchestrating an extensive identity theft and bank fraud scheme. United States District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl ordered the sentence to run consecutive to a separate 32-to-64-year sentence Poole is serving for attempted murder in Delaware County.
Poole was charged by indictment in June 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.
According to court filings and Poole’s admissions, from February 2018 through February 2020 he led a scheme with co-schemers who acquired stolen personally identifiable information such as names, credit card details, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, and credit histories belonging to individuals in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Many victims were elderly individuals whose information was used without their knowledge or consent.
Poole recruited co-schemers known as “runners” who would impersonate victims at banks, lenders, and local businesses under his direction. These runners obtained loans or purchased merchandise using the stolen identities. Court records indicate that Poole began this operation while on supervised release from a previous federal conviction for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
In total, the scheme caused over $100,000 in actual losses affecting more than a dozen businesses and financial institutions. The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew T. Newcomer and John Iannacone prosecuted the case.