Second man admits selling debtors' info

BUFFALO, N.Y. (RELEASE) - U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Thomas Rice, 37, of Amherst, New York, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge William J. Skretny to a felony charge of sale of debtor information which was property that belonged to a bank. This offense carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney MaryEllen Kresse, who is handling the case, stated that from October 2006 to August 2008, the defendant worked as a Director at Capital Management Services (“CMS”), a Buffalo debt collection business. During that time, he stole the personal identification information of thousands of debtors from CMS computer files, information which belonged to the financial institutions which had contracted with CMS to collect the debt. The defendant thereafter sold the information to Timothy E. Arent and Neil G. Wieczkowski, who allegedly used it to scare victims into paying entirely made up debts that the victims allegedly owed.

Arent and Wieczkowski were charged by Criminal Complaint in October 2009 for posing as attorneys and law enforcement officers while operating a fraudulent debt collection scheme that victimized consumers nationwide. The scheme is alleged to have netted millions of dollars for Arent and Wieczkowski, while the defendant received approximately $80,000 for the information.

“Today’s conviction marks the second conviction in this case in the past two weeks,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul, referring to the guilty plea of Andrew Jon Pytlewski, on October 22, 2010 to the same offense. “My Office will continue to work diligently to ensure that the public’s personal identification information is protected, and that those who prey upon others through misuse of this information are prosecuted.”

The plea is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Robert Bethel, and the Internal Revenue Service, under the direction Special Agent In-Charge Charles Pine.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb.18, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. EST, in Buffalo, N.Y., in front of Judge Skretny.