Former city clerk worker accused of ID theft

Friday, March 16, 2007

A former “employee of the year” at the Oakland city clerk’s office was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges of fraud and identity theft for allegedly using an online database to obtain personal information of nearly a dozen people.

Denise Vejmola, 32, of Hayward, who is serving time at halfway house for a forgery case in Alameda County, allegedly used Accurint — an online research tool used by law enforcement workers, government officials and other authorized users — to obtain Social Security numbers and dates of birth of 11 people.

Vejmola was indicted on two counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer with intent to defraud and one count each of unlawful use of unauthorized access device and aggravated identity theft.

Vejmola was named “employee of the year” by the Oakland city clerk’s office in 2002. As legislative recorder, she took minutes at City Council meetings and prepared meeting agendas, Assistant City Clerk Marjo Keller said Thursday. Vejmola left the office in January 2005.

Vejmola’s mother, Gloria Vejmola, said Thursday that her daughter was undergoing drug rehabilitation for methamphetamine use while serving time at a Los Angeles halfway house for an Alameda County conviction in 2005 relating to identity theft.

“She’s a person who everybody gets along with very well,” she said. “She’s really honest in what she does. She does hard work.”

Accurint, a Web-based service of Lexis Nexis, is the “most widely accepted locate-and-research tool available to government, law enforcement and commercial customers,” according to its Web site.

Between December 2004 and December 2005, Vejmola allegedly accessed Accurint databases from a Dell computer and obtained personal information of 11 people, said the indictment, which identified the alleged victims only by their initials.

Although the indictment didn’t specify what Vejmola allegedly did with the other people’s information, it noted that Dell customers could obtain a line of credit by submitting information and applying online.

In a separate filing that a law-enforcement official said was “loosely related” to Vejmola’s case, the same grand jury indicted Jason Jaye on Thursday on charges that he possessed at least 15 unauthorized credit cards and had the Social Security numbers of a dozen people.

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