LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A San Fernando Valley man was charged Tuesday with allegedly obtaining about $2.6 million by stealing Beverly Hills residents' identities -- often by lifting mail and packages from their homes.
Oren David Sela, 35, of North Hills, was charged in an eight-count indictment returned Tuesday by a Los Angeles federal grand jury. Sela faces three counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, one count of possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, one count of unlawful possession of at least five identity documents, and two counts of possession of stolen mail, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The defendant is expected to be arraigned in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 30. A federal magistrate judge previously ordered him jailed without bond.
According to court documents, from November 2021 to this month, Sela stole the mail of Beverly Hills residents to obtain debit cards, bank account numbers, credit cards, telephone numbers and other personal identifying information. He allegedly used the information to gain unauthorized access to the victims' bank accounts. Sometimes, to defeat two-factor authentication on a victim's account, Sela would engage in "SIM swapping" of the victim's telephone number to a SIM card that he would control, prosecutors contend.
SIM swapping is the process of fraudulently inducing a carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber's SIM card to a SIM card controlled by another without the legitimate subscriber's authorization. This allows the fraudster to take control of the victim's various accounts through two-step authentication text messages sent to a victim's cell phone.
After gaining access to a victim's bank account, Sela allegedly would open additional fraudulent accounts in the victim's name and transfer funds from the victim's bank account into those accounts. Sela allegedly would then withdraw funds from the fraudulent accounts or use the fraudulent accounts to make unauthorized purchases or transfers.
Sometimes, Sela caused debit cards and credit cards linked to a victim's account to be sent directly to him, and he then allegedly used those cards to make fraudulent unauthorized purchases, according to the indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court.
In December 2022, Sela was arrested for allegedly driving a car reported as stolen, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. On Sela's person at the time of his arrest, authorities found six debit and credit cards in the names of four different victims, according to the document.
Subsequent to the arrest, during a search of Sela's then-residence in West Hollywood, law enforcement allegedly uncovered extensive stolen mail containing victims' personal information; bank statements and account information relating to at least 18 different victim accounts; five California driver' licenses belonging to five confirmed victims of identity theft; seven debit and credit cards belonging to confirmed fraud victims; and checks and receipts for expensive retail items, including a watch worth nearly $17,000, that had been fraudulently obtained using victims' money.
Sela was found with about 33 pieces of stolen mail in December 2022 and at least 118 pieces of stolen mail on Oct. 10, the indictment alleges.
The losses incurred by four victims are about $2.6 million, according to court documents, and at least 20 additional victims have been identified.
If convicted of all charges, Sela would face up to 20 years in federal prison for each bank fraud count, up to 10 years for the possession of unauthorized access devices count and for the unlawful possession of identity documents count, and up to five years for each possession of stolen mail count. For the aggravated identity theft count, he would face a mandatory two-year prison sentence consecutive to the rest of his sentence, prosecutors noted.