Namaste! Good Morning,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is offering a reward up to $5,000 for any information that leads to the arrest of John Gordon Baden who's 38. He is considered to be one of San Diego FBI’s Most Wanted Cyber Fugitives.
Baden is allegedly responsible for stealing the identities of 40K people and then using the stolen information to siphon funds from their brokerage or bank accounts and purchasing expensive electronic items with their credit. It is estimated that the losses caused by this fugitive are in the millions of dollars.
In July 2014, Baden along with his two co-conspirators, Jason Ray Bailey and Victor Alejandro Fernandez were indicted by a federal grand jury seated in the Southern District of California, San Diego, California, on a number of federal charges which includes, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, computer hacking, aggravated identity theft, and wire fraud. Baden was accused specifically on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and computer hacking. The charges were the result of an FBI investigation into Baden and his two co-conspirators who operated a criminal enterprise that exploited vulnerabilities in computer servers of a U.S. mortgage broker.
According to the accusation, Baden and his co-conspirators obtained mortgage applications containing customers personal identification information such as names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, assets, tax information, and driver’s licenses by hacking into the company’s computer servers. While the criminal enterprise was based in Tijuana, Mexico, their victims stretched from California to Florida and states in between.
According to the accusation, during the period July 2011 to August 2013, Bailey, Fernandez, and Baden knowingly and intentionally engaged in a scheme whereby they would obtain and share log-in credentials that enabled them to gain unauthorized access to a U.S. mortgage broker company’s electronic customer records and the BlitzDocs computer application that the company used to manage these records.
Baden and his co-conspirators would then use log-in credentials without authorization to access BlitzDocs and the company’s electronic records and thereby steal customer’s personal identifiable information ((PII). Baden and his co-conspirators would then use this stolen PII, along with PII stolen from other victims and businesses, to defraud merchants and financial institutions, for their private financial gain.
FBI agents arrested Jason Ray Bailey and Victor Alejandro Fernandez in February 2014, on federal charges emanating from this same investigation. Those charges were superseded by a federal grand jury indictment in July 2014. Both Bailey and Fernandez remain in federal custody.
It is assumed that Baden maybe in Tijuana, Mexico, specifically the Zona Norte or Zona Centro area. Also, Baden enjoys gambling and likes to play bingo.
John Gordon Baden is described as follows:
- Sex: Male
- Race: White
- Height: 5’8” tall
- Weight: 195 pounds
- DOB: August 19, 1976
- Hair: Light brown
- Eyes: Hazel
