Soldier to plead to Microsoft identity theft
Soldier to plead to Microsoft identity theft
PITTSBURGH (AP) — An American soldier from Pittsburgh is scheduled to change his not guilty plea to FBI charges that he illegally obtained a credit card using the identity of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and tried to use it to make purchases and access cash in western Pennsylvania.
Twenty-nine-year-old Brandon Lee Price was also facing desertion charges because he was missing from his post at Fort Polk, La., when he was arrested on the federal identity theft charges last year.
It’s not immediately clear what happened in the military’s case against Price, but federal criminal court records show he was recently locked down in a psychiatric unit of a Veterans Affairs hospital. That’s why a change of plea hearing scheduled last month was postponed until today.
Price’s federal public defender has a blanket policy of not commenting to the news media.