A Ramsey couple pleaded guilty last week in federal court to identity theft. It’s a case that goes across state lines and one which required hundreds of man hours to capture the two.
“These are a couple of good people to get off the streets,” Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren said.
Shane Martin Kristiansen, 29, and Sarah Marie Westfall, 29, have been stealing mail, documents from vehicles, blank checks, endorsed checks, account information and identification documents from a variety of victims. They used those items to create counterfeit checks, defraud merchants, banks and other financial institutions out of more than $50,000 in money, goods and services.
More than 50 people and businesses were victimized.
Mille Lacs County Financial Crimes Investigator Jason LaSart has been working on the case for over a year.
“It’s the most difficult case I’ve worked on in my career,” said LaSart, who’s been in law enforcement for 13 years.
In 2007, the U.S. Postal Service became involved in the investigation.
The couple were brazen enough to use counterfeit checks from Scott County Jail and the Pine County Detention Center.
Ironically, they once stole mail from LaSart back in 2000.
In September 2006, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office searched a vehicle that had been occupied by the couple just moments earlier. Authorities seized documents pertaining to other individuals, including passports, birth certificates, bank statements, credit cards, completed checks, blank checks, motor vehicle certificates and driver’s licenses.
In March 2007, authorities executed a search warrant at the couple’s home in Ramsey where they seized numerous checks without information, computer discs containing check writing software, four laptop computers, printers, lamination devices and stolen mail.
In addition to Minnesota, the couple are charged with stealing from victims in South Dakota and Washington.
Kristiansen and Westfall were charged on Friday, Sept. 26 and both entered their pleas on Wednesday, Oct. 1 before U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim. They admitted thefts from August 2006 to July 2007.
They each plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess and use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of others to execute a scheme to obtain money from financial institutions by false and fraudulent pretenses.
They each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The state guidelines for sentencing is less than federal sentencing guidelines.
Once released from prison, the couple will end up on federal parole rather than state probation because it was charged through federal court.
The couple’s criminal history records are extensive.
Kristiansen, who has aliases of Justin Rainwater, Shane Christianson, Jason Kristiansen and Shane Kristianson, has 14 felony convictions in Minnesota for drugs, theft, receiving stolen property, check forgery and burglary dating back to 1998, along with gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor charges. He has been in the St. Cloud Correctional Facility, the Faribault Correctional Facility and Lino Lakes. Convictions came from Hennepin, Sherburne, Anoka, Mille Lacs, Stearns, Crow Wing, Aitkin and Isanti counties.
Westfall has seven felony convictions for check forgery, drugs, issuing dishonored checks and theft. She also as five gross misdemeanor convictions. Her crimes in Minnesota were committed in Crow Wing, Anoka, Wright, Sherburne, Mille Lacs, Stearns and Aitkin counties.
“It took an incredible amount of time,” LaSart said of capturing Kristiansen and Westfall.
Several agencies were involved in the capture of Kristiansen and Westfall, including the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office, the Morrison County Sheriff’s Office, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force and the Duluth Police Department.
The case is being prosecuted by the assistant U.S. attorney Thomas M. Hollenhorst.
“Investigator Jason LaSart worked very hard over a long period of time on this case and was able to get it to go federal,” Lindgren said. “That in itself is an accomplishment.
“This whole case is a hats off to him and the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force and others he worked with to get it to this point.
“It’s a huge accomplishment.”
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