- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Policy and Law
-
A federal judge sentenced a second defendant to six years and six months in prison for helping divert more than $4.7 million from the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Patrick Ross, 56, of Porcupine, S.D., received the same 78-month sentence imposed in June on his co-defendant Buffy Redfish. U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler also ordered Ross to serve three years of supervised release, federal prosecutors said.
Ross and Redfish were each ordered to pay $4,744,415.36 in restitution arising from the same $4.7 million loss to the tribe.
From 2017 to May 2024, the pair diverted fee checks collected from contractors by the tribe’s Tribal Employment Rights Office, or TERO,…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.