A Denver grand jury returned a 131-count indictment against seven people in connection with a wide-scale identity theft operation, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

The seven alleged racketeers — Jordan Ashley, Keiichi Hiramatsu, Ryan Jennings, Douglas Jump, Shawn McClintock, Kaisha Valentin and Brandon Clements — face charges including burglary, forgery, theft and attempting to influence a public servant, according to the 72-page indictment.

“The allegations alleged in the indictment point to a carefully designed scheme that stole the identities of numerous Denver-area residents and then defrauded people and businesses out of tens of thousands of dollars,” said Denver District Attorney John Walsh in an adjoining news release. “Identity theft can have lifelong financial effects on victims and ruin their sense of security. It also results in losses to businesses that are often passed on to consumers.”

From Sept. 16, 2024 through Wednesday, the racketeers worked together in the Denver area to acquire, use and share the stolen personal information of other people to commit theft or fraud for their own personal and financial gain, according to the indictment. In doing so, they stole mail that held credit cards, ID cards and other personal information.

To steal that information on a widespread scale, members of the group created fake arrow keys to unlock mailboxes, according to the indictment. They also bought and received the personal information of victims from the dark web.

After obtaining the information, the members would share that information with each other using people’s identities to book hotel rooms, apply for credit cards and buy vehicles from local car dealerships, among other schemes, according to the indictment. They also used the profits from those ventures to buy food and illicit drugs, as well as goods and services for friends, acquaintances and partners.

In addition to the theft, members created a cellphone app that mimicked the “myColorado app” offered by the state to store ID cards and other information, according to the indictment. Members of the enterprise would act as administrators on the app, creating a realistic-looking digital hologram and function bar code to the app could be used as if it was official.

Using the app, members of the group created fake digital identifications that contained the stolen information and then sold them for profit, according to the indictment.

In total, the group defrauded victims of over $175,000.