Identity-Theft Ring Suspect Pleads Guilty

A 30-year-old Ventura man has pleaded guilty to multiple fraud and forgery charges in connection with an identity-theft ring that victimized nearly 800 people, including a federal judge, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Trever Ziese, who pleaded guilty in court Monday to 12 felony counts, faces up to 13 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 14, prosecutors said. He remains in jail without bail.

Ziese and Donna Mendoza, 35, of Oxnard ran the ring from a Camarillo motel room, where they used piles of stolen personal identification cards to make forged checks that were used to buy computers and other equipment.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies uncovered the operation after arresting the pair this summer during a traffic stop outside the motel.

Mendoza is serving a year in Ventura County Jail after pleading guilty to several fraud charges in August.