A Bowie, Md. woman is spending the next six years of her life inprison after she used an elaborate ID fraud scheme that primarilytargeted credit unions and led to financial losses.

Tonia Latrice Lewis was sentenced to serve a 70-month prisonsentence last month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.Federal Judge Claude Hilton was also ordered Lewis to payrestitution of nearly $250,000. Federal prosecutors said Lewissought more than $600,000 in loans and financing. Lewis wasconvicted for bank fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identifytheft.

According to court documents and evidence presented at hertrial, Lewis, 47, obtained the identities of dozens of victims andused them to open credit union accounts and apply for loans andlines of credit in the names of the victims, without theirknowledge or consent.

She submitted more than 30 loan or line of credit applicationsat the $22 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Alexandria,Va., the $495 million Lafayette Federal Credit Union in Rockville,Md., the $215 million U.S. Postal Service Federal Credit Union inClinton, Md., the $178 million Department of Interior FederalCredit Union in Washington, D.C., the $47 million District of Columbia Teachers Federal Credit Union in Washington, D.C., the $3billion Tower Federal Credit Union in Laurel, Md., and the $369million Signal Financial Federal Credit Union in Kensington, Md.,according to court documents. Lewis also hit M&T Bank andArundel Federal Savings Bank.

Federal prosecutors said Lewis took sophisticated steps toperpetrate the years-long scheme and conceal her identity.

She targeted financial institutions that allowed her to applyfor loans and submit back-up documentation online so that her imagewould not be caught on surveillance video. Lewis fabricated avariety of documents to substantiate the loan applications andstolen identities, including paystubs and driver's licenses. Shealso paid to run detailed credit reports and credit checks on hervictims, which gave her access to extensive personal identifiableinformation, which enabled her to pass some of the security checkput in place by the credit unions.

After she became a member of the credit unions using fake IDs,she opened checking and savings accounts and obtained more than 10loans or lines of credit. Prosecutors said Lewis made more than 20additional attempts to get loans or lines of credit that failed,however.

Many of the financial institutions were able to identifyadditional fraudulent applications linked to Lewis through IPaddress information, email addresses, aliases used and othercontact information, federal prosecutors said in courtdocuments.

Her scheme also included creating fake email accounts,purchasing burner phones that were used as the contact numbers onthe fraudulent applications, and routing the victims' mail to beforwarded to vacant or abandoned properties.

When Lewis went to a branch to withdraw funds from thefraudulent accounts, she often wore clothing such as hats, glasses,or scarves that obscured her face. She also covered up surveillancecameras with aluminum foil, according to prosecutors.

Lewis sought more than $600,000 in loans and financing, and heractions caused actual losses of $249,858. Lewis used the stolenfunds to buy jewelry, clothing, and she gambled away some of themoney at a West Virginia casino.