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A Duluth man was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to identity theft and fraudulently receiving unemployment insurance and federal pandemic aid.
Federal Judge Michael Davis on Wednesday sentenced Jared Fiege to six and a half years in prison for wire fraud and an additional two years for identity theft. Fiege, 35, is also sentenced to pay $284,000 in restitution: a combined $31,000 to four victims identified in court records only by their initials, $21,000 to Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program, and $231,000 to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
In July 2021, Fiege pleaded guilty to the fraud and identity theft charges. He admitted then to using other people’s names, birthdays and Social Security numbers to make a web of fake passports, email addresses and other identifiers to apply for unemployment insurance and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans administered by the federal business administration.
Fiege admitted on July 14, 2021 to accessing tax records held by a relative who does tax preparation. With that information in hand, he reportedly stole victims’ identities, posing, for instance, as a Duluth firefighter to apply for unemployment insurance, get a fake passport, open a bank account and get a “burner” phone account.
Authorities claimed Fiege would take a lap around the Saginaw area each day to intercept mail from homes where he had arranged for fraudulent credit cards to be sent.
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When he was arrested, authorities found about $189,000 in cash, two guns and 14 cellphones. Each phone, police claimed, had a different victim’s name taped to the back of it.
