Carl E. Washington, a former California assemblyman and divisionchief of the Los Angeles County Probation Department, was sentencedthis week after pleading guilty to federal bank fraud chargesinvolving an identity theft scheme that was exposed by the $362million LA Financial Credit Union in Pasadena, Calif.

Washington was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge S. JamesOtero in Los Angeles to one day in custody, one year of homeconfinement and two years of supervised release.

He was also ordered to pay $193,661 in restitution to the $508million First City Credit Union in Los Angeles, LA Financial CreditUnion and Farmers and Merchants Bank.

Washington of Paramount, Calif., admitted he defrauded thethree financial institutions by concealing several unpaiddebts—debts that he stopped paying—and his overall lack ofcreditworthiness, according to the FBI in Los Angeles.

Washington was able to hide his bad debts by filing a series ofbogus police reports with the Los Angeles County Sheriff'sDepartment, falsely claiming to be the victim of identity theft.After filing the false police reports, Washington sent copies ofthe reports to the credit reporting agency Experian, demanding theinformation relating to the bad debts be removed from his creditreport, records showed.

Once Experian removed this data from his credit report,Washington submitted applications for new credit cards to thecredit unions and bank. He failed to disclose all of hisoutstanding debts and that he had negative information reported byother financial institutions removed from his credit report,according to federal authorities.

Once the credit unions and bank issued new credit cards toWashington, he purchased goods and services. But, after makingseveral payments, Washington contacted Experian and, claiming thathe was the victim of identity theft, requested that informationrelated to the new credit cards be removed from his creditreport.

The FBI said Washington's scheme was exposed when he attemptedto refinance two auto loans through LA Financial CU. When thecredit union examined Washington's credit report, it discoveredthat the auto loans the credit union had previously issued were notshowing up on his credit report.

LA Financial learned from Experian that Washington disputed hehad earlier sought to refinance his auto loans and that he claimedto be a victim of identity theft. Because LA Financial knewWashington's claims were false, it froze his credit card accountand notified the authorities.

Washington was elected to the California legislature in 1996 andhe served in the assembly until 2002. He later landed a job withthe Los Angeles County Probation Department, where he ran a unitcalled Intergovernmental Relations and Legislative Affairs. He haslost his job with the agency, according to local media reports.