Posted on: May 11, 2026, 06:59h.
Last updated on: May 11, 2026, 06:59h.
- Former federal prosecutor accused of using stolen identities for online gambling
- Plea deal could erase charges after two years of supervision
- Court records suggest gambling account restrictions may have driven scheme
A former federal fraud prosecutor in West Virginia has admitted using stolen personal data to open online gambling accounts.
Monica Dillon, a longtime assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of West Virginia, has been charged with five counts of identity theft, according to federal court documents.
Dillon served nearly two decades in the office and once handled or supervised fraud-related prosecutions, according to WCHS.
From 2021 to 2024, she led a team that investigated white-collar fraud, health care fraud, environmental, tax and civil rights prosecutions, according to her online profile. That overlaps with the period covered by the identity-theft allegations, according to MetroNews.
Five Victims
The case, filed April 22 in the federal court in Charleston, accuses Dillon of using the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of five victims between January 2021 and January 2023.
According to an agreed statement of facts attached to Dillon’s plea agreement, she used the victims’ personal data to open and operate online gambling accounts and to make financial transactions in their names. Her winnings exceeded $1,000 during a one-year period for several victims, according to the document.
Dillon has agreed to plead guilty to all five identity-theft counts, but the same agreement provides a path for the charges to be dismissed if she completes 24 months of supervision and satisfies the agreement’s conditions.
Why Did She Do It?
It’s unclear from court documents why she would risk her career, law license, and reputation by stealing identities to gamble online.
Typically, a gambler might resort to using stolen data because they have been banned from gambling platforms. Sportsbooks routinely ban or limit users for suspicious betting activity, operating multiple accounts or, in some cases, consistently beating the market over time.
Then there is the practice of “bonus abuse,” in which bad actors create multiple accounts to exploit sign-up bonuses, promotional incentives offered to new users when they open an account and make a first deposit.
Because gambling sites prohibit users from operating more than one account, such schemes often rely on stolen or synthetic identities to create what appear to be legitimate new users.
Public records show Dillon filed for bankruptcy in 2022, during the period prosecutors said the scheme took place.
She is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday and is expected to enter guilty pleas before an out-of-state judge.
