A Chelsea woman has admitted guilt in a deceitful plot that left over 120 wireless company customers compromised, following her role in using counterfeit IDs to snatch up phones and gear under their names, according to a statement from federal prosecutors.
On a dark spree lasting nearly two years, Perla Soto, 24, became a chameleon with forged documents, finessing her way through stores across the nation. Yesterday, she conceded her wrongdoing in Boston's federal court, pleading guilty to conspiracy charges. She was captured by cameras committing no fewer than 20 fraudulent transactions, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.
The scam's toll? South of $290,000 in purloined tech—phones and accessories snatched up using bogus licenses flaunting Soto's face atop other customers' details. Meanwhile, Judge Julie E. Kobick scheduled Soto's sentencing for the dog days of summer, on August 9.
Federal penalties for conspiring to possess five or more illegal IDs could cage Soto for up to five years, not to mention three on a leash of supervised release plus a pocket-gouging fine of $250,000 and restitution. Soto walked into this trap, tailed by the sleuths of the FBI's Boston Division and the Massachusetts State Police, who, with the cooperation of Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, brought the curtain down on her fraudulent stage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip A. Mallard of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit is handling the prosecution legs of the case.
