News

LANSING – The House of Representative's today passed a package of bills, including House Bill 4325 sponsored by State Representative Dudley Spade (D-Tipton), that will strengthen Michigan's identity theft statute by providing law enforcement with new tools for pursuing identity thieves. Spade's bill will create a forfeiture statute for identity theft using the same model currently in place for narcotics trafficking.

"Identity theft is a complex crime, often involving several perpetrators working together to steal, distribute and use your personal information," Spade said.  "If we are serious about cracking down on identity theft we have to do more than just imprison the people who directly use stolen information to commit fraud. We must make identity theft too costly a crime to commit by turning the resources of these organizations back on them by using seized assets to fund further enforcement."

House Bill 4325, which would take effect on November 1, 2009, would add several new sections to the Identity Theft Protection Act (MCL 445.74 et al.) to identify property subject to forfeiture, establish forfeiture procedures, authorize the seizing agency to retain or sell seized property, and require a seizing agency to submit a summary report annually to the attorney general for forwarding to the legislature regarding forfeiture of property. The provisions are similar to those in the Public Health Code regarding the seizure and forfeiture of property related to crimes involving controlled substances.

The legislation passed the House with overwhelming support on a vote of 104-3.