Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act

The Senate has passed S.2168, the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act. This bill will accomplish several things and close some loopholes, if a companion bill is passed in the House.

• First, this bill will allow the victims of identity theft crimes to seek restitution from criminals for the time they spend fixing the problems the ID theft caused them.
  
• Second, prosecutors could pursue criminals who threaten to take, or release information from computers as a form of cyber-extortion. Currently the law only classifies cyber-extortion as explicitly threatening to shut down or damage a business or government computer.
  
  
• Third, it would be a felony to use spyware or a keylogger to damage ten or more computers even if the damage is less than $5,000. That dollar threshold is now used to define a misdemeanor.
  
  
• Fourth, federal prosecutors could pursue a criminal stealing personal information from a computer even if that computer is in the same state as the criminal's. Current laws only allow federal prosecutor's jurisdiction when the attached computer is in another state.
  

ex-CFO on the Run

Edward Batayeh, Executive Vice President and CFO of CHL Mortgage Group was charged with defrauding four financial institutions for more than $13 million. He has been indicted on mortgage fraud and tax evasion and is now evading the FBI. The trail he has left included applying for a job, at one of the institutions he defrauded, but under the name Ed Bhataybh.

Batayeh is accused of selling the same mortgage loans to multiple investors. He is also accused of buying properties in the names of some of his employees, and defaulting on them.

The FBI considers Batayeh armed and dangerous.