Between 2013 and 2023, Munson P. Hunter III "used fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers to open 14 bank accounts, acquire at least 18 credit cards, and apply for loans from the Small Business Administration," the Justice Department says. "Those fraudulent acts ultimately cost others nearly half a million dollars."
After he was arrested in 2023, Hunter faced 10 counts of bank and wire fraud with combined maximum penalties of 300 years in prison. He also faced a choice. He could go to trial, risking convictions that might send him to prison for the rest of his life. Or he could plead guilty to a single count of aiding and abetting wire fraud, in which case prosecutors would drop the other nine charges. If he chose the second option, it looked like his prison term would be somewhere between 15 and 21 months, the range recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
