GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A former Small Business Administration (SBA) employee here in West Michigan was sentenced to over four years in prison on Tuesday for his involvement with an apparent scheme to steal identities out of an applicant database.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jay David Soulliere Jr. was sentenced to 51 months in prison, with 3 years of supervised release after, and ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution over his apparent role in the plot.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan say that Soulliere began working at the Small Business Administration in September 2020, only lasting there until March 2021.
In his short time there, he assisted people applying for "disaster-related loans," among other responsibilities.
According to prosecutors, Soulliere stole information on two people's identities from the SBA's computer database. Both of the identities belonged to people who had applied for loans.
They say that Soulliere then gave that information to a friend, Matthew Moore Vodak Jr., who used it to "commit various acts of identity theft." They claim he purchased a Land Rover with a fake check and driver's license, "taking over" a credit card, and applied for personal loans and lines of credit.
Vodak was sentenced to 39 months in prison for his role in the scheme and is ordered to pay back $18,000 in restitution.
“This defendant thought his government job gave him permission to steal the identities of people already suffering the economic consequences of a pandemic. We take insider threats seriously and will hold public servants accountable for abusing the public’s trust,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said Tuesday in a statement.
The case was investigated by the FBI, who says they got assistance from the SBA Office of Inspector General. They also had assistance from the Troy Police Department, the Plymouth Township Police, MSP and the New York City Police Department.
