A Washington man, Marco Raquan Honesty, has entered a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Court documents reveal that from January 2021 to April 2022, Honesty was involved in various fraudulent activities, including exploiting COVID relief programs and executing "smishing" scams.
From April to October 2021, Honesty and his co-conspirators defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by submitting false loan applications for non-existent businesses. These fraudulent actions led to a $509,069 loss for the Small Business Administration (SBA). Additionally, he engaged in "smishing," sending text messages mimicking legitimate bank communications to obtain victims' personal information.
Honesty's schemes extended to creating fake IDs and vehicle titles, altering money orders for higher values, and selling stolen financial data through a Telegram channel named "Heavenly Logs." His activities resulted in known losses amounting to $621,958.50.
On September 7, 2023, law enforcement searched Honesty's residence and seized numerous items linked to his fraudulent operations. He is set for sentencing on May 23 and faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud plus an additional mandatory two-year term for identity theft.
The announcement came from Jessica D. Aber of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Sean Ryan of the FBI Washington Field Office after Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton accepted the plea. The case is prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine E. Rumbaugh and Kathleen Robeson.