Fort Lewis soldier and wife accused of ID theft

TACOMA – A staff sergeant at Fort Lewis and his wife have been charged with using fake identities to obtain more than $1 million in loans and valuables, including a $510,000 home in Lacey, a new van and an array of fur coats and flat-screen televisions.

Staff Sgt. Irvin Lee McClendon and his wife, Sonia, appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on one count of conspiracy to use a false Social Security number. Irvin allegedly created false tax forms and pay stubs on his home computer to help his wife carry out the fraud.

Prosecutors say the investigation began with a complaint from America’s Federal Credit Union at Fort Lewis, which determined that early this year Sonia McClendon opened a line of credit using the following documentation: someone else’s Social Security number, a fraudulent W-2 that listed her address as the Fort Lewis mini-mall, a fake Army ID and North Carolina driver’s license, and pay stubs from a nonexistent company. She quickly ran up $27,000 in debt, the complaint said.

Sonia McClendon also defrauded a woman she befriended – and her friend’s parents – by claiming she needed money for cancer treatments, FBI Special Agent Michael Ilmanen wrote in the complaint.

When investigators searched the half-million-dollar home the McClendons bought in Lacey in March, they found paintings, a large uncut diamond, 32 fur coats, a pile of high-end purses, and flat-screen televisions in nearly every room, prosecutors said.