The daughter, Anh Thu Nguyen, 26
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Mother, daughter accused of running ID theft ring
Mother, daughter accused of running ID theft ring
SEATTLE -- King County Prosecutors say Anh Nguyen is back in jail after she was caught at Sam's Club last week opening a credit card using a victim's name and had charged more than $4,000 that day. An employee recognized her from Q13 News as a fraud suspect and notified his manager. Nguyen was free on $500,000 bail at the time and is now being held on $750,000 bail. "On Wednesday, I will ask the Court to increase her old bail to $1,000,000 as she continues to reoffend," said King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mafe Rajul.
Nguyen is charged along her mom, 46-year-old Kim Le, aka “Mamma Fu” and “The Gold Lady” after
Kim Le, aka “Mamma Fu” and “The Gold Lady”
the mother-daughter team was arrested earlier this month. Seattle Police say they found all the makings of an industrial-scale identity theft operation in their Skyway home.
Investigators believe they ran a criminal operation that racked up as much as $10,000 in charges a day using stolen identities from people in Normandy Park, Everett, Medina, Auburn and other cities.
“Up to date, we have been able to estimate dozens of victims and hundreds of thousands in losses and I just hope there aren’t any other victims out there we haven’t been able to identify but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are,” said King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mafe Rajul.
Samnang Sam, aka 'Bang'
Two others suspects are also in custody. Anh Tuan Tran is being held on on $550,000 bail and Samnang Sam, aka ‘Bang’, is in custody on $750,000 bail. Sam is also accused of Vehicular Assault after troopers say he caused a four-car crash Monday night near I-5 and State Route 18 that left a woman critically injured.
Prosecutors urge people to check their credit reports often and even their arrest reports because the suspects have given police fake names when they were contacted in the past.
“So the next thing the victim knows, he has an arrest record and he’s wanted on warrants because these people are using not only the financial information but also creating fraudulent IDs and pretending to be those people,” said Rajul.
Lester Collado, aka ‘Droop’ has also been arrested. Officers served a search warrant on his home in SeaTac found a stolen handgun. He was located in Arizona driving a Mercedes stolen from Washington state. He is in jail in Renton and now facing federal charges.
Lester Collado, aka 'Droop'