Washington, D.C. – A U.S. Secret Service investigation has led to the conviction and sentencing of a Chicago man who executed a well-planned scheme targeting his neighbors’ identities.
Boyd Egan, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced on August 13, 2021, to nine years in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for bank fraud and identity theft. Egan also was ordered to pay $160,954.54 in restitution. Egan unlawfully obtained the personal information of victims, including their names, dates of birth, social security numbers, personal banking information, and phone numbers. In total, Egan was connected to at least 30 victims whose stolen identity he used to hijack their phone number and withdraw or attempt to withdraw funds from their bank accounts.
“This case is an excellent example of the great working relationships the Secret Service maintains with our State and local law enforcement agency partners,” said U.S. Secret Service Resident Agent in Charge Jeff Rinehart, of the Springfield, Illinois, resident office. “It also illustrates the importance of the Secret Service’s efforts to stay at the cutting edge of cyber investigative capabilities as they relate to crimes involving this level of technology.”
With the assistance of the Hinsdale and Pekin police departments, agents from the Secret Service Springfield Resident Office were able to track down and arrest Egan in January before he could victimize any further individuals. Egan’s criminal conduct dated back to August 2019 and was state-wide. To effectuate the fraud, Egan typically used a high-quality fake driver’s license and credit card that contained the victim’s stolen personal information but bore Egan’s picture. In many instances, Egan carried out a “SIM swap” as well, wherein he took over the victim’s personal phone number and imported it to a mobile device of his own.
While the Secret Service was first established to suppress counterfeiting of U.S. currency in 1865, Congress subsequently directed the Secret Service to investigate identity theft, access device fraud (credit and debit card), computer fraud, and bank fraud. The Secret Service uses an integrated approach to investigating cyber-enabled financial crimes combining both technical and financial investigative techniques. Technical investigations focus on identifying cyber actors responsible for crimes like network intrusions to obtain valuable information. Financial investigations focus on the illicit financial activity, including money laundering (mule accounts, exchanges, dark net markets), identity theft, payment card fraud.
To learn more about the investigative mission of the U.S. Secret Service, visit https://www.secretservice.gov/investigation.