Trio accused in $1.5M identity-theft scam aimed at military

NORFOLK

Three people face a federal indictment charging them with defrauding USAA out of more than $1.5 million in a three-year-long identity-theft scheme targeting service members.

Bruce W. Bridges and Pamela Dunbar are scheduled to be arraigned this morning in U.S. District Court on a multi-count indictment charging conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud. They were arrested last week.

A third defendant, Joseph M. Cherry II, who has a long criminal record of defrauding banks, was in the Portsmouth City Jail on Friday on state forgery charges. He is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court Thursday.

The suspects are charged with using the identities of military personnel to obtain loans through USAA, the insurance, banking and investment company that serves service members, veterans and their families. Sometimes, they applied in their own names, or phony names, using forged documents, the indictment says.

The scheme, according to the indictment, took place between 2005 and 2008.

The trio targeted a USAA program that offers "pre-commissioned loans" to people selected as cadets in an ROTC program or through a military academy, the indictment says. The program offers a maximum of $25,000 for each loan.

The suspects first established a membership through USAA and then applied for 60 loans in different names, the indictment says. USAA approved the loans, each for the maximum amount, and mailed debit cards and checks to addresses that the defendants provided.

The loss was listed as $1.5 million. The loans were never repaid, the indictment says.

Cherry, 29, who is charged with 28 counts in the indictment, has prior convictions within the past 10 years for passing bad checks, computer fraud, obtaining money by false pretenses and probation violations.

He twice received suspended state prison terms for those crimes. He last lived on Kincaid Avenue in Norfolk.

He was sentenced in Portsmouth a month ago to 10 years in state prison, with six years suspended, after pleading guilty to forgery charges.

Bridges, 26, faces 27 counts in the indictment. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond after his arrest last week. The judge noted in his written no-bond ruling that "the weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong." He also noted Bridges' prior misdemeanor convictions for using a phony identification and marijuana possession.

Dunbar, 20, faces 13 counts in the indictment. She was released on $5,000 bond last week.

Bridges and Dunbar were operating out of an office in a plaza at 5020 Ferrell Pkwy. in Virginia Beach, according to public records.

Officials in the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigated, and the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment. The indictment, filed in Newport News under seal in February, was unsealed March 24.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com