A former Library of Congress personnel executive and his cousin have been charged with using information from employee records to finance a personal shopping binge, authorities announced Wednesday.
William Sinclair and Labiska Gibbs are facing up to 20 years and 37 years in prison, respectively, on charges that they accessed library personnel files and applied for lines of credit.
Gibbs, 35, was indicted Tuesday. Sinclair, 27, was charged by information — an indication that he has worked out a deal with prosecutors. Court papers also state that Sinclair is talking with prosecutors.
According to court documents, Sinclair was one of the few library employees who had access to the library’s payroll system.
This spring, according to Sinclair’s charging documents, Gibbs told him that she was a veteran at “crafting” — identity theft — and urged her cousin to use his special access to obtain employee data for a credit card scam.
He gave her the data for at least 10 employees, although “he does not recall precisely how many employees’ identities he gave,” records state.
Authorities believe the cousins wracked up more than $38,000 in bogus credit card charges, court documents state. The Library of Congress provided $80,000-plus in credit monitoring for the victims of the scheme.
Agents raided Sinclair’s home in July, and he confessed to the scheme — although he only admitted to defrauding five of his colleagues, court papers state.
