A ring of ID thieves included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in their heist of $2.1 million from unsuspecting consumers and at least 10 financial institutions around the country.
Last summer, a thief swiped Anna Bernanke’s purse — including the couple's joint checkbook. Days later, someone started cashing checks on the Bernanke family bank account.
"It's fair to say he was not pleased," a close associate of Bernanke told Newsweek.
"Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year," Bernanke said in a statement provided to the news magazine.
"Our family was but one of 500 separate instances traced to one crime ring. I am grateful for the law enforcement officers who patiently and diligently work to solve and prevent these financial crimes."
The Bernanke checkbook theft — never publicly revealed until now — swiftly joined a wide-ranging identity theft investigation by the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service that had already begun.
The probe ended in a series of arrests, criminal complaints, and indictments brought by federal prosecutors against members of a nationwide ring that used a novel combination of old-fashioned thievery and high-tech fraud to loot victims’ bank accounts.
CBS News reports that the fraud ring — which goes by the street name “Cannon to the Wiz” —is suspected of stealing more than $2.1 million and was headed by a scam artist known as "Big Head."