Real estate agent stole landlord’s identity while getting evicted from home, feds say
A real estate agent and her husband stole their landlord’s identity while getting evicted and used the landlord’s name to try and rent a different home for $10,000 a month, according to federal prosecutors.
Now the Virginia couple is going to prison after stealing “any identity they could get their hands on” and “becoming greedier as the time went on,” court documents state.
Real estate agent Caprice Foster, 51, and her husband, Marcus Foster, 33, both of Merrifield, stole at least nine people’s identities and used their information to buy a $60,000 Range Rover and live in luxury homes while the victims “suffered,” according to the Justice Department.
A judge sentenced Caprice Foster to six years and eight months in prison and Marcus Foster to four years and 10 months in prison on Oct. 14 in connection with the alleged fraud and identity theft lasting for years, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Caprice Foster’s attorney Nina Ginsberg told McClatchy News in a statement that her client’s sentence did not adequately take her “extraordinary childhood trauma” into account. Ginsberg added that this “impacted all of the decisions (Caprice Foster) has made in her adult life.”
McClatchy News also contacted Marcus Foster’s attorney for comment on Oct. 17 and was awaiting a response.
Prosecutors said Caprice Foster acted as the leader and directed her husband in the fraud scheme, according to a sentencing memorandum.
“The Fosters stopped at nothing to effectuate or prolong their fraud — from falsely claiming to have been hospitalized with stage 3 breast cancer to claiming that a parent died from COVID to Marcus falsely posing as other people during court proceedings — not once, but twice,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
The case
The scheme began in at least 2018, and the majority of the victims were people Caprice Foster encountered while working as a real estate agent and timeshare salesperson, according to prosecutors. However, one was a landlord whom they never paid rent to, court documents state.
With the stolen identities, the couple created fake documents — including social security cards, driver’s licenses, tax documents and employment papers — using their victims’ information to splurge on personal expenses and obtain loans and credit, the release says.
As a result, prosecutors said they moved into at least five homes using other people’s identities without ever paying rent, according to the sentencing memorandum.
“The Fosters used the victims’ (personal identifying information) until a victim’s credit was so decimated that his/her (personal identifying information) was no longer useful to them,” the sentencing memorandum states.
Additionally, the pair used the stolen identities to open bank accounts where they deposited stolen checks, according to the release.
Caprice Foster is accused of acting “behind-the-scenes” while having her husband carry out higher-risk activities, including stealing mail and posing as identity theft victims on the phone, the sentencing memorandum states.
Marcus Foster also appeared in court, pretending to be victims during eviction hearings after the couple failed to pay rent on properties they leased under the victims’ names, prosecutors said.
In one case, Caprice and Marcus Foster stole their landlord’s identity and began applying for leases on other homes, according to the sentencing memorandum. This occurred while the landlord was evicting the couple from a home they leased by impersonating another victim.
While living in the home owned by the landlord, the couple raided the landlord’s mail and stole documents containing personal information, according to the sentencing memorandum.
Then, Caprice and Marcus Foster began applying for rental properties using the landlord’s name and eventually obtained an agreement to lease a six-bedroom, $10,000 per month home in June 2020, prosecutors said.
While pretending to be the landlord, the couple told a real estate agent awaiting a payment on the property that they were unable to hand over the money at the time because of a purported death in the family, according to the sentencing memorandum. Prosecutors said they lied, telling the agent the landlord’s mother died from COVID-19.
“The Fosters invented elaborate stories to elicit sympathy from others and used that sympathy to buy themselves more time or to get special treatment in order to effectuate their fraud,” the documents state.
Prosecutors said the couple “also incorporated a business that they used in furtherance of the fraud,” according to the release.
Merrifield, where the couple is from, is 15 miles west of Washington, D.C.
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Real estate agent stole landlord’s identity while getting evicted from home, feds say."
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