A 61-year-old Shasta County man pleaded guilty in federal court to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scam that netted $476,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged in an announcement on Monday, June 29.
James Raymond Hanes of Anderson pleaded guilty to running “a vehicle financing scam that used stolen identities, fake driver’s licenses and fraudulent loans to obtain and resell cars,” U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said in the announcement.
The scam lasted from June 2022 to December 2023, according to court documents.
Hanes obtained personal information about “multiple individuals and used it to create at least 16 counterfeit driver’s licenses bearing his photo but someone else’s identity,” the attorney’s office alleged. “He then secured more than $47,000 in vehicle loans” in their names, purchased cars from Northern California dealerships, registered them at the California Department of Motor Vehicles and insured them. He then resold them “to associates and unsuspecting buyers,” the attorney’s office said.
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Hanes will return to court for sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb on Oct. 13. The court will determine his sentence, but Hanes’ maximum sentence could be a $1 million fine and 30 years in prison for bank fraud, and a mandatory consecutive 2-year prison sentence for aggravated identity theft, the attorney’s office said.
The Redding Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, attorney’s office spokesperson Lauren Horwood said in the announcement, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Delaney prosecuted the case.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal, Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Anderson man pleads guilty in $476,000 ID theft and bank scam
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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By Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
