|
Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the
Northern District of Ohio, announced that a federal grand jury in Cleveland,
Ohio, returned an indictment today charging Matthew S. Kichinka, age 25,
of 9839 Huntington Park Drive, Strongsville, Ohio, with fifty counts of
wire fraud, one count of Aggravated Identity Theft, two counts of Bankruptcy
Fraud, and one count of transmitting interstate communications containing
threats to kill or injure another person.
The indictment charges that between July 2004 and April 2007, Kichinka
devised a scheme and artifice to defraud Ameritrade and E*Trade, and to
obtain money, funds, credits, assets and other property by means of false
and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, and in furtherance
of said scheme, knowingly transmitted, caused to be transmitted and attempted
to transmit approximately 50 interstate Electronic Funds Transfers from
various banks to Ameritrade and E*Trade totaling approximately $3,348,000.00.
The indictment charges that between July 2004 and April 2007, Kichinka
opened at least 35 brokerage accounts via the Internet at Ameritrade and
E*Trade, using the names, Social Security account numbers, dates of birth
and other personal identifying information of other individuals without
their knowledge, using fraudulent Electronic Funds Transfers from various
banks in the Cleveland area, and elsewhere. The indictment alleges that
after opening the on-line accounts, Kichinka placed stock purchase orders
for hundreds of thousands of shares of stock before the EFTs were returned
by the issuing bank as fraudulent, forcing Ameritrade and E*Trade to suffer
losses of approximately $341,113.63 upon liquidation of stock held in
the fraudulently opened accounts.
The indictment further charges Kichinka with Aggravated Identity Theft
for using the personal identifier information of others during and in
relation to the Wire Fraud offenses. Kichinka is also charged with two
counts of Bankruptcy Fraud in connection with false statements he made
on court filings made in connection with his bankruptcy case filed in
2005 in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.
The indictment also charges Kichinka with transmitting in interstate commerce,
at least four text message communications threatening to kill or injure
one or more other individuals. The indictment alleges that the threatening
communications were transmitted by Kichinka from Ohio through a computer
system located in California, to the intended recipient located in the
Greater Cleveland area.
If convicted, the defendant's sentence will be determined by the Court
after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant's
prior criminal record, if any, the defendant's role in the offense and
the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not
exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the
maximum.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern
of the Cleveland U.S. Attorney's Office, following an investigation by
the Cleveland Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant
is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden
to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
|