Both Miguel Leyva, 35, and Karina Gutierrez, 32, live in Wasco, San Joaquin Valley, Kern County, California, United States. They are a couple.

Between February 2016 and August 2022, Leyva and Gutierrez stole the personally identifiable information (PII) for individuals. Some of the information were obtained from health care providers where Gutierrez worked.

Leyva and Gutierrez then used the PII to obtain fraudulent credit cards from banks in the identities of those individuals. The Waco residents created online accounts with credit reporting agencies for the individuals, which enabled the couple to check credit scores before applying for the credit cards.

More than $825,000 were lost to the banks because of Leyva and Gutierrez’s scheme. The two spent the money on various things including automobile accessories, concert tickets, designer clothing, gardening equipment, home appliances, professional sporting events tickets and travel.

A federal grand jury indicted Leyva and Gutierrez for conspiracy, bank fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. On November 17, 2022, both suspects were arrested.

If convicted, Leyva and Gutierrez face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $1 million fine for each of the conspiracy and bank fraud charges and 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine for the access device fraud charges. For the identity theft charges, they face mandatory two years in prison consecutive to other counts.