THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY IS NOT MONOLITHIC. WHY IT ISN'T THAT SIMPLE. FRAUD AFFECTING TWO MAJOR CITIES, INCLUDING HOUSTON. THE CRIMES HAPPENED OVER SEVERAL YEARS AND IMPACTED PASSPORT OFFICES IN HOUSTON AND ATLANTA. THE THREE SUSPECTS APPEARED IN FEDERAL COURT. ANDY CEROTA IS JOINING US LIVE FROM THE PASSPORT AGENCY. WE ARE HEARING PART MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSIDE JOB. IT WAS. ACCORDING TO PROSECUTORS WHO SAY THE TRIO WORKED TOGETHER TO DEVICE THIS SCHEME. THE I.D. THEFT, FRAUD AND WIRE SCHEME WENT ON FIVE YEARS, ACCORDING TO PROSECUTORS. MCCLENDON AND MILES SURE SURRENDERED, BUT INVESTIGATORS ARRESTED DOMINIQUE THOMAS. THE TRIO APPEARED BEFORE A FEDERAL JUDGE TO HEAR THE CHARGES LAID OUT. PROSECUTORS SAY MCCLENDON, CONTRACT EMPLOYEE WHO WORKED AT THE PASSPORT AGENCY, ABUSED HER POSITION OF TRUST. THE TRIO IS ACCUSED OF STEALING INFORMATION FROM PASSPORT OFFICES AND SENDING IT BACK AND FORTH. THEY WOULD RECRUIT ACCOMPLICES TO ASSUME STOLEN IDENTITIES, THEN USE COUNTERFEIT DOCUMENTS TO OPEN CREDIT TO PURCHASE iPhones, iPads AND ELECTRONICS. EACH IS FACING ONE COUNT OF CONSPIRACY TO EXIT WIRE FRAUD, FOUR COUNTS WIRE FRAUD AND FOUR COUNTS AGGRAVATED IDENTITY THEFT. A BOND WAS ISSUED FOR EACH OF THE THREE ACCUSED I.D. THIEVES AND THE JUDGE SET CERTAIN CONDITIONS ALL THREE MUST ABIDE BY IN ORDER TO STAY OUT OF JAIL, UNTIL THIS CASE GOES TO TRIAL. 
 
 HOUSTON - 
 
 An identity theft and wire fraud scheme targeting both the Houston and Atlanta passport agencies went on for five years, according to federal prosecutors. 
 
 
 
 While Chloe McClendon, 26, and Alicia Myles, 31, surrendered to authorities, investigators arrested 25-year-old Dominique Thomas. Thursday afternoon the trio appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy to hear the charges laid out in the federal indictment. 
 
 Prosecutors say McClendon, a contract employee who worked at the passport agency, abused her position of trust to carry out the scheme. The trio is accused of stealing personal information from the passport administration and transmitting it back and forth between one another. 
 
 
 
 According to court documents, they would recruit accomplices to assume the stolen identities who would then use the counterfeit documents to open commercial lines of credit to purchase iPads, iPhones and other electronics. Each of the three is facing one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft. 
 
 
 
 The conspiracy charge and each substantive count of wire fraud carries a possibly 20-year federal prison sentence as well as a possible $250,000 fine. 

 
 
 (James Pan, official photographer, U.S. Department of State) 
 
 A woman employed as a State Department contractor was indicted in Houston on Wednesday for an alleged identity theft scheme using personal information she stole while working at a passport office. 
 
 The contractor, Chloe McClendon, and two other women were charged “with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft,” according to the Associated Press. 
 
 Since 2010, the defendants used the stolen names, addresses and Social Security numbers from people’s passports to create fake documents and used those identities to borrow money to purchase electronics, including iPhones and iPads, federal prosecutors say in court documents. 
 
 We reported last month that the U.S. Passport Agency had banned contractors from bringing cellphones to work, and was planning to extend that rule to government employees too. And we’d heard it was spurred by a bad actor in Houston storing and transmitting applicants’ personal data. 
 
 [This government agency is banning employees bringing cellphones to work] 
 
 Rob Arnold, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Local 1998 that represents Passport Agency workers nationwide, said they’ve reached an agreement with management to begin bargaining the proposed ban on electronic devices soon. They are apparently exempting government-issued BlackBerry phones, though those have cameras too. 
 
 One issue, Arnold told the Loop on Friday, is that the agency has cut costs in recent years by employing contractors to do jobs that used to be government posts, and giving them increasingly more responsibility. 
 
 “The fact that they actually committed identity theft, victimizing the people applying for passports, may be an unprecedented low in the Agency’s history,” Arnold said. “The few and rare malfeasance cases over the years have involved bribes for passports, not harming those applying for passports.” 
 
 A State Department official did not immediately return request for comment about the indictment. 
 
 Arnold said the crime should be taken very seriously, but maintained that a ban on electronics wouldn’t stop such fraud. 
 
 “If the contractors had been caught writing down the applicants’ private information on a piece of paper, would they have banned paper and pens?” he said. “There are least half a dozen other ways — including faxing, copying, or just memorizing a few details — to commit that fraud.” 
 
 He added that full-time Passport specialists “spend their entire careers detecting and preventing identity theft.”
– Apply for a new passport in recent years? We hope your application didn't reach the desk of a woman accused of stealing people's personal data from the State Department's passport office since 2010. Chloe McClendon, who worked as a contractor, was indicted this week in Houston, the Washington Post reports. The 26-year-old was charged along with two other women—Alicia Myles, 31, and Dominique Thomas, 25—on multiple counts, including aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, reports Click2Houston. Simply put, they're accused of stealing Social Security numbers, addresses, and names to make phony documents. Accomplices allegedly used those documents to open commercial credit accounts and buy electronics items like iPhones and iPads. The Post reported last month that the US Passport Agency was already refusing to let contractors bring cellphones to the office, and planned to prevent government workers as well, because someone in Houston had been caught swiping applicants' personal data. But Rob Arnold, who heads a federal workers' union, questions the phone ban: "If the contractors had been caught writing down the applicants’ private information on a piece of paper, would they have banned paper and pens?" he asks. He also says the Passport Agency has reduced costs by replacing government workers with contractors and giving the latter greater responsibility.