PHILADELPHIA
Presumably, she didn't fleece Prince Charles. But a couple of young
jet-setters plan to admit in court that other people who crossed their paths
unwittingly financed their luxury lifestyle.
A lawyer for Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, said Monday that she and her
now-ex-boyfriend have signed federal plea agreements that likely will send them
to prison for several years for ID theft and other crimes.
Since her arrest, Kirsch's friends and classmates at Drexel University have
portrayed her as a serial liar who even masked her identity when she met the
heir to the British throne at a student forum in Philadelphia last year; in a
favorite myth, she told him she was Lithuanian.
When Kirsch and Edward K. Anderton, 25, were arrested in December, photos
found on a laptop in their $3,000-a-month apartment showed the couple smooching
under the Eiffel Tower, riding horseback on a beach and flaunting skimpy red
swimsuits by a swanky hotel pool.
They stole credit-card and bank-account information from friends, co-workers
and neighbors to finance lavish purchases and travel, prosecutors said. They
were arrested when they claimed a package at a local UPS store under a
neighbor's ID. The package contained lingerie from a British retailer.
"They were just so arrogant," Philadelphia Detective Terry Sweeney, the lead
investigator, said Monday. "When you start committing ID theft around the corner
from where you live, it's going to come back to haunt you."
Anderton, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with an
economics degree, also set up eBay accounts with various stolen identities to
buy and sell nonexistent goods, authorities said. That scheme alone netted
$33,000, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said.
State charges against the pair were dismissed as federal charges were filed
Monday by way of an information, which often indicates a defendant's
cooperation.
Kirsch's lawyer, Ronald Greenblatt, said his client signed an agreement to
plead guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering, bank
fraud and other charges. The sentencing guideline range is about five years.
Anderton also signed a plea deal, Greenblatt said. Anderton's lawyer, Larry
Krasner, did not return messages left with The Associated Press on Monday.
Kirsch is living with her mother in Novato, Calif., while Anderton, who had a
$60,000-a-year starter job in real-estate finance, is back home with his family
in Everett, Wash.
"She's supposed to be graduating college now, and instead she's going to be
going down to federal court in a few weeks and entering a plea," Greenblatt
said.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press