Carl Edward Washington, a former California state assemblymanand Los Angeles County Probation Department intergovernmentalrelations chief, was arrested this week after being charged withdefrauding three financial institutions, including two creditunions.

According to U.S. District Court documents filed Sept. 13 inCalifornia's Central District, Washington allegedly obtained creditcards from financial institutions, including the $492 millionFirst City Credit Union of Los Angeles and the $360 million LAFinancial Federal Credit Union of Pasadena, charged severalthousand dollars to the cards, then claimed the charges werefraudulent, falsely claiming to be the victim of identitytheft.

A release from the office of U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.said that Washington would provide a copy of the bogus policereport to credit reporting agency Experian, and request they removethe credit card and loan histories from his credit report. Theloans had substantial unpaid balances and past due amounts, therelease said.

Once Experian removed the items from Washington's credit report,Washington allegedly would send out applications for new creditcards without disclosing to the banks his outstanding debts or thefact that he had information relating to those debts removed fromhis credit report.

The court documents also mention the $23 million Mid-Cities Financial Credit Union of Compton, where Washingtonalso allegedly obtained credit, only to later claim to Experianthat the accounts were the result of identity theft. Washingtonmade the claim to Experian in July 2009 while he was attempting toobtain new credit from Farmers and Merchants Bank of Long Beach,Calif.