"Operation Death Match" Nets Carson/Incline Man

CARSON CITY, NV - When Lawrence Joseph Read, a former Carson City/Incline Village resident filed for a passport in Buenos Aires, Argentina and again in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he became a suspect in "Operation Death Match." He tried to use a fraudulent Nevada Driver's License with a deceased man's name.

'Operation Death Match' is a Diplomatic Security Service program that compares passport applications with state death records, and now Read is going to prison for two years for identity theft.

According to the Attorney General for the District of Nevada, he was netted because he tried numerous times to use the name, date of birth and social security number of Michael Truman Hummel, who died in 1996.

Read used a Nevada driver's license with his own picture and an Incline Village address, but somehow it had Hummel's name. Read tried once in 2003 in Argentina and again in 2006 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. On the application in Cambodia, he listed his permanent address as Carson City, Nevada.

Under federal law, anyone who commits a crime at an American Embassy can be prosecuted by a federal judge in the area of their last-known address, which is the District of Nevada. On January 18th he pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and on Monday he was sentenced to two years in prison.