PHILADELPHIA, PA — A Philadelphia man was sentenced Wednesday to 69 months in federal prison for directing an identity theft and bank fraud scheme that caused more than $100,000 in losses, with the term to begin after he completes a separate state sentence of up to 64 years for attempted murder.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl also sentenced Charles E. Poole III, 48, to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay more than $1 million in restitution.
The federal prison term will run consecutively to the 32-to-64-year sentence Poole is serving for an unrelated attempted murder conviction in Delaware County.
Poole pleaded guilty in September 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identification document fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, two counts of bank fraud and two counts of access device fraud. He was indicted in June 2023.
According to court records and admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Poole led a scheme from approximately February 2018 through February 2020 that used stolen personal information to obtain loans, credit and merchandise in victims’ names.
The stolen information included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, credit histories and credit card information. The victims included elderly people in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Poole recruited participants to enter banks, lending institutions and local businesses while posing as the victims, according to federal prosecutors. The participants then sought financing, opened credit accounts or purchased merchandise under the stolen identities.
Court records show Poole began the scheme while serving a term of supervised release for an earlier federal conviction involving bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The scheme caused more than $100,000 in confirmed losses to over a dozen businesses and financial institutions, prosecutors stated. The restitution order exceeded $1 million, though the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not explain the difference between that amount and the reported actual losses.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew T. Newcomer and John Iannacone prosecuted it.
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