Posted on: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Former UH student indicted in ID theft arrested in Florida
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
A former University of Hawai'i student who was indicted by a federal grand jury in Hawai'i last year for allegedly submitting fraudulent information on a loan application has been arrested in Orlando, Florida.
Deborah Jenkins, who was arrested Wednesday, was indicted along with her husband, Paul, in October on charges of identity theft, bank theft and conspiracy. Paul Jenkins pleaded guilty in the case and was arrested shortly after his indictment.
His wife remained a fugitive until her capture Wednesday.
"ID theft gives the criminals the means, the opportunity and the incentive to steal from innocent victims while avoiding detection and arrest," said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo in a prepared statement. "Because of the nature of these crimes, my office will continue to vigorously prosecute these offenses in federal court."
The indictment alleges that, in February 2002, while registered as a student at the University of Hawai'i, Jenkins submitted a student loan application containing fraudulent information to State Street Bank and Trust Co.
Jenkins' case was one of 27 instances of loan fraud that took place in the state last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The 27 loan fraud cases accounted for 4 percent of the 640 identity theft complaints recorded by the commission in Hawai'i in 2004.
In all there were 2,447 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints here last year that cost victims $2,758,876. Of the 2,447 complaints, 891 of them occurred in Honolulu.
Jenkins' indictment last fall caused great concern at UH, where she had worked at Sinclair Library.
Earlier this month, UH officials encouraged thousands of current and former students, faculty, staff, affiliates and patrons of any of the system's 10 campus libraries between 1999 and 2003 to check personal credit reports and monitor personal accounts for unusual activity after learning of Jenkins' indictment.
UH officials contacted about 20 people in the UH library database whose personal information may have been compromised.
Jenkins worked at Sinclair library from January to August 2003, and had access to the library management database with names, Social Security numbers and addresses of staff, students, faculty and public patrons back as far as 1999. Personal information about students, faculty and staff is automatically loaded into the library database to give them access to the library.
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.
