Man sentenced after the website who boasted to be ‘source of trust#1 for false identifications’

An Indiana man declared himself guilty to what prosecutors describe as a lucrative scheme where he made tens of thousands of false identifications, as announced on a website that was “Its source No. 1 of trust for false identifications.”

James Watt, 26, obtained more than $ 1 million in Bitcoin, federal prosecutors said.

Watt sent an email to approximately 30,000 false identifications “to anyone who was willing to pay,” federal investigators said in the judicial records. On January 27, a federal judge in Indianapolis sentenced Watt to three years of probation after declaring himself guilty of his role in the four -year scheme.

“Watt almost became a millionaire simply through the manufacture and mail of thousands of false identifications, essentially with a single man (motorized vehicles),” said John Childress, acted by the United States prosecutor for the District South Indiana, in a statement.

Watt manufactured the IDS from 2019 to 2023, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Watt did not operate the website, said Childress, but “I had a much more critical role” when using the equipment and the ability to make “false quality identifications.”

The website included product images using the Marvel character “Thor”, played by Chris Hemsworth. The agents noticed that they found a physical copy of the identification during a search for the Watt residence.

Watt sent the false licenses at night at night through the collection of US postal services. UU., Prosecutors said.

Watt declared himself guilty of money laundering in addition to his illegal production of a document charge.

Watt customers were able to use false identifications for several purposes, prosecutors said. This included boarding a plane, buying cough medicine, renting a car, opening a bank account, requesting government assistance and buying a firearm.

Contact the reporter of Indistar Sarah Nelson in [email protected]

This article originally appeared in Indianapolis Star: Indiana man sentenced in a false identification scheme