ID theft leads to charges for six - Amerifunding scheme

American Databank — April 8, 2004

A grand jury has indicted six people in an alleged scheme to obtain more than $5.7 million in mortgages and multimillion-dollar lines of credit by falsifying documents and obtaining personal information from people who thought they were applying for jobs. According to indictments handed up Tuesday and made public Wednesday, members of the group provided false information on loan applications, faked employment verifications and doctored financial documents.

Read the history of this case so far (Court Docket) by cliicking here

They also used help-wanted advertisements to solicit personal information from people who thought they were applying for jobs with a Westminster mortgage brokerage, according to an arrest affidavit issued earlier. The use of help-wanted ads to collect information for identity theft is becoming more common. Last year, online job site Monster.com warned users that false job postings were being used to illegally collect personal information from job seekers. Experts in the field say job seekers are prime targets for identify theft because information on applications typically provides sensitive personal information.

The Denver Post talked to one woman who believed she was a target of the fraud in Westminster when she applied for a job with Amerifunding, a mortgage company owned by Gerald P. Small of Broomfield. Joan Germano of Arvada responded to a help-wanted ad she saw in The Post in February, after she was laid off from her job at a title company. The ad promised salaries of more than $100,000 for account representatives who applied in person at Amerifunding’s offices at 8700 Turnpike Drive in Westminster.

When Germano showed up at the offices, she was asked to fill out an application and provide copies of her driver’s license and Social Security card. She declined to provide her Social Security card but shared her license. “My gut told me not to give them my license, but I was pretty desperate. I let my desperation override my good judgment,” Germano said.

She never heard never heard back from Amerifunding but later received a call from a bank representative who wanted to know if she was happy with her loan. She was contacted by an investigator from the Internal Revenue Service shortly thereafter.

Small was arrested on a criminal complaint related to the scheme March 12. He was indicted Tuesday along with Kelli B. Small, 30, of Broomfield; Robert E. Bichon, 37, no address listed; Robert J. Sigg, 39, of Parker; Charles E. Winnett, 31, of Conifer; and Chad E. Heinrich, 32, of Broomfield.

Gerald Small is scheduled to appear in court today. Kelli Small, Winnett and Heinrich were tentatively scheduled to surrender to authorities today, Dorschner said. According to court documents, Kelli Small is also known as Kelli S. Burkhalter, and Gerald Small is also known as Gerald A. Spence and Kris Kaas.

Update on Friday, December 3, 2004 at 8:21AM by The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS

FBI Press Release - Aug 25,2004,

GERALD SMALL, ET AL, dba AMERIFUNDING, Gerald Small, Kelli Burkhalter-Small, Charles Winnett, Chad Heinrich, and Robert Sigg, were arraigned in U.S. District Court, District of Colorado. These subjects were charged with bank fraud stemming from their alleged roles in a scheme to obtain loans employing stolen identities, and then utilizing these loan proceeds to purchase substandard houses which were used to perpetuate this scheme. Losses attributable to this alleged scheme now exceed $19 million.

Update on Monday, January 24, 2005 at 8:22AM by The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS

Kelli Small was reported by the Denver Post to have received probation and 160 hours of community service after entering a guilty plea. Read the full story here.