A 44 year old man from Mitchell, South Dakota has been sentenced to federal prison following his conviction for Aggravated Identity Theft.
Jeremy Zwetzig was sentenced to two years in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release plus restitution in the amount of $1,935.90, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $100.
A federal grand jury indicted Zwetzig in August 2023. He pleaded guilty on August 29, 2024.
The conviction stemmed from an incident on January 23, 2023, when Zwetzig stole mail in Mitchell. One piece of mail contained a check that was not addressed to him. He then used the banking information from that legitimate business check to create a fraudulent check drawn on that same account, unbeknownst to the actual holder of the account. Zwetzig made the fraudulent check payable to an actual person and then negotiated the fraudulent check by depositing it into a bank account that he fraudulently opened using the name of the actual account holder so he could draw the funds and spend them.
The Mitchell Police Department, U.S Postal Inspection Service and the South Dakota Highway Patrol investigated the case.
Zwetzig was allowed to self-report to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service by December 30, 2024.