Two more relatives plead guilty to identity theft

TACOMA — Two more members of a family of identity thieves pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Mildreada Ruiz Rapa, 47, and her daughter, Malanie Andrews, 24, entered the pleas to a wide range of charges, including fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, real-estate fraud and income-tax fraud. Ruiz Rapa's son, Michael Andrews, was sentenced last October to 18 months and $243,224 in restitution after pleading guilty to related charges.

The defendants, formerly of Vancouver, Wash., were arrested by Vancouver police after they used phony identities to obtain car loans in September 2003. They skipped bail, and the bond they had posted — secured by real estate — turned out to be fake. That led to a wider investigation, which determined that they had also used fake IDs to buy seven residential properties in the Vancouver and Portland area.

Ruiz Rapa also ran an income-tax-preparation service through the Jehovah's Witness Church. She submitted IRS forms in her own false identities and in the false identities of her children, for which she received more than $60,000 in fraudulent refunds, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

After skipping bail, they went to Arizona, where authorities arrested Ruiz Rapa and her daughter for impersonating nurses at a renal-dialysis clinic. They were gathering personal information from patients in need of kidney transplants to create new identities for further frauds, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Both were prosecuted in Arizona; Ruiz Rapa was sentenced to 30 months, and Andrews got 18. They were then returned to Washington to face federal charges.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 1.