A Warren County man who was already charged with over a dozen allegations of forgery and identity theft is now facing prosecution at the federal level for bank fraud and identity theft.

Elijah Briggs, 41, has been indicted in federal court for three counts of bank fraud, four counts of identity theft, and one count each of possession of stolen mail and possession of 15 or more “unauthorized access devices,” according to information released last week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Missouri.

Three other people were also indicted for bank fraud connected to Briggs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Briggs is accused of obtaining checking account information and other personal information by stealing mail from people’s mailboxes from 2019 to 2021, the attorney’s office said. Prosecutors allege that Briggs used that information in various schemes to steal money, including altering stolen checks to make them payable to himself or others, opening bank or credit accounts using the stolen information, and accessing victims’ online accounts to steal money.

Briggs is also accused of attempting to cash a legitimate payroll check to himself multiple times, and for creating counterfeit checks to be cashed by three other people.

The other three people involved, Holly Naylor, 39; Jessica Kirkpatrick, 42; and Reuben Kim, 34, have all been indicted on two counts of bank fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. All but Kirkpatrick are in custody.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also released a statement from one of the lead investigators on the case:

“This investigation exposed a broad scope of fraudulent activities that showed a brazen disregard for the victims,” said  Katherine Greer, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Kansas City. “These are not petty crimes that can be easily recovered from, but instead could result in a lifetime of negative financial and emotional turmoil for the victims.”

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, the St. Charles Police Department, the St. Peters Police Department, and the Wentzville Police Department.

Briggs was originally arrested in 2021, and again in 2022, by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department for numerous allegations of forgery and trafficking in stolen identities. At one point he was found to be in possession of personal identification information for at least 80 people, tools for forging checks, and several fraudulent debit and credit cards, according to the sheriff’s department.