A Levittown man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly eight years in prison after he was convicted in federal court of fraud and aggravated identity theft while already serving a similar prison sentence.
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Robert Joseph Whiteman, Jr., 38, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison back in 2oo6 for bank fraud and ,according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, had obtained and attempted to obtain credit in his name and the names of others during his sentencing over the last several years.
Officials note that Whiteman frequently filed false credit applications and then instructed female accomplices to use the approved credit cards to make charges and take cash advances. A recent release said that Whiteman even made fradulent payments on the credit cards, temporarly and falsely increasing the cards available credit once he had reached their limit.
After banks and credit card companies stopped allowing him to make charges, Whiteman wrote fraudulent letters to the institutions falsely claiming that the charges were unauthorized in order to cause the institutions to forgive the charges. Whiteman then submitted false tax returns and fictitious police reports to the financial institutions in order to advance the allegations.
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According to officials, Whiteman’s fraud caused over $65,000 in actual losses to his victims and attempted to cause approximately $165,000 more. One of these victims was his own father.
In addition to a 95 month prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Gerald J. Pappert ordered five years of supervised release, restitution in the amount of $67,834.06, and a $500 special assessment.
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The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick J. Murray.
