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Identity Thief Hires Hitman to Kill Informant

We usually talk about identity theft as something that is as electronic as the medium it occurs in, and we very rarely come to terms with any physical occurrence that may be associated with it. We go as far as saying that we should be careful about the links that we visit and ensure that we have an updated anti-virus and anti-spyware software. A news report on the Website of the United States Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California may change that, though, as a suspected identity thief pleads guilty to having an informer murdered. What some people will do to make money certainly never fails to surprise us.

identity theft leads to lost money Pavel Valkovich of Sherman Oaks, California, has pleaded guilty to the charge of solicitation of murder. He had allegedly tried to recruit a hit man to kill the informant who had provided federal authorities with information that lead to his being charged with bank fraud. Valkovich is reportedly involved in a scheme that stole personal information and used this information to transfer money from victims’ bank accounts to PayPal accounts.

Valkovich was taken into custody last year. During the execution of a search warrant at his home, he still attempted to transfer $440,000 from the bank account of a victim before jumping from the roof of his apartment complex onto another building in an attempt to make a run for it.

He was arraigned on bank fraud charges and soon after allegedly approached someone with the intent of asking that person to kill the informant who supplied federal investigators with information on him. He reportedly said that he will provide the hitman with a photo of the informant and $10,000 to do the deed. He even had it all worked out, specifying that the hitman was to use a silencer and perform the crime through a drive-by shooting.

That did not quite work out in his favor, though; authorities eventually found out about his plans and he ended up being transferred to another facility. He then sought another hitman, this time offering $40,000 to kill both the informant and the first hitman that he got. Crazy.