Army recruits raise their right hands to recite the oath of enlistment in Talladega, Ala., Oct. 6, 2024, during a mass enlistment ceremony. A former Army recruiter in New Jersey pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft after stealing the identities of seven recruiting prospects to fraudulently apply for $266,000 in loans and credit cards. (Adena Mccluskey/Alabama National Guard)
An Army recruiter in New Jersey who tried to profit from stealing the identities of people she sought to enlist is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to crimes her lawyer called “an aberration.”
Former Sgt. 1st Class Jane Crosby, 35, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department said Monday.
She used the stolen identities to open Navy Federal Credit Union accounts, deposit fraudulent checks and apply for over $250,000 in loans and credit cards, according to court records.
Prosecutors will not pursue additional charges of bank fraud or identity theft, according to an agreement Crosby signed with the Justice Department in February.
She faces up to 30 years in prison for the bank fraud charge and a minimum two-year sentence for the identity theft charge. She could receive leniency for accepting responsibility, the agreement states.
Crosby was working at an Army recruiting station in East Orange, N.J., in late 2023, when she used the prospective recruits’ personal information to open “pre-active duty membership” accounts in their names, court records say.
“Such accounts are intended to facilitate the direct deposit of soon-to-be service members’ salaries once they join the military,” the DOJ statement said.
All told, she sought more than $266,000 in loans or lines of credit and tried to deposit thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks, according to prosecutors.
The credit union canceled or denied most of the applications and rejected many of the checks. But after making some deposits, Crosby managed to withdraw thousands of dollars, an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent alleged in a criminal complaint filed with the court in late 2024.
And while only two credit cards appeared to have been approved and issued, she used one with a limit of nearly $15,000 to buy plane tickets for herself and a relative to travel from Las Vegas to New York, the complaint said.
In the applications and her communications with the credit union, Crosby used the recruiting station address and office phone number, the complaint said.
Under the deal with prosecutors, she agreed to plead guilty to one charge of bank fraud related to all seven recruits. The agreement requires her to pay restitution of nearly $18,150 to Navy Federal for its losses from the fraud.
She also agreed to a guilty plea on a single charge of aggravated identity theft related to the first victim, the only one of the candidates who ended up enlisting in the Army. That recruit, identified only as Victim 1, was stationed in Texas around September 2023.
Two others, referred to as Victim 3 and Victim 4, sought to enlist but were unsuccessful, while the other four did not seek to enlist and at least one of them claimed not to have even visited the recruiting station.
The plea deal reflected exceptional investigative work, said Joel Kirch, special agent in charge of Army CID’s northeast field office. He said Crosby “callously took advantage” of people through means designed to help them.
Attorney Harley D. Breite represented Crosby and told Task & Purpose that her client regrets her actions.
“She led a law-abiding life,” Breite said. “She’s sorry for what she has done, and this will never happen again.”
