Man Gets 4-12 Years In Prison In ID Suffolk Fraud Scheme

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A New York man was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison in connection with a nationwide operation to create and use synthetic identities to commit fraud.

Adam Arena, 46, of Little Valley, was sentenced on a second-degree grand larceny charge.

“This defendant participated in an elaborate, nationwide scheme with other individuals to defraud financial institutions by assisting in the creation of synthetic identities in order to obtain fraudulent loans and credit cards,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a news release Friday. “Working in cooperation with our local and federal law enforcement partners, we were able to bring him to justice in both state and federal court, and he will serve a substantial prison sentence for his crimes.”

Identity fraud was suspected at several banks and credit unions in Suffolk in August 2018, leading to an investigation by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s Financial Crimes Bureau and the Suffolk County Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit.

Evidence found more than 20 synthetic identities were created and used in Suffolk to fraudulently obtain loans and credit card accounts from 19 different financial institutions, prosecutors said.

Arena is currently serving a federal prison sentence in connection to this scheme and other unrelated white collar crimes, authorities said. He was sentenced to the Suffolk County charges on Thursday.

Arena was sentenced in June to 5 1/2 years in prison after he was convicted in connection with laundering nearly $1 million in funds from the COVID-19 relief Paycheck Protection Program, according to the IRS.

The schemers created synthetic identities using personal identification information from real people and then opening accounts and establishing credit in other identities, investigators said.

The conspirators took numerous steps to make the synthetic identities appear legitimate, and to fraudulently build credit for the synthetic identities, officials said. The synthetic identities were used to steal funds from financial institutions, authorities said.

Arena was charged as part of a 108-count indictment in February 2020 that included 13 people and three corporations.

Arena pleaded guilty in March 2021 to the following charges:

• Two counts of second-degree grand larceny (a Class C felony)
• One count of third-degree grand larceny (a Class D felony)
• One count of second-degree criminal possession of forged instrument (a Class D felony)
• One count of fourth-degree money laundering (a Class E felony)
• One count of first-degree scheme to defraud (a Class E felony)

On top of the four to 12 year-sentence, Arena is also required to pay roughly $523,000 in restitution to the financial institutions impacted by the scheme, prosecutors said.

He was represented by Robin Yanes of Los Angeles.