Crime & Courts

Anchorage woman get 3 1/2 years for stealing and forging checks from local vehicles, homes

A 25-year-old Anchorage woman with a history of fraud crimes was sentenced Thursday to 3 1/2 years in prison for stealing, forging and using checks at local banks and grocery stores, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alaska.

Prosecutors said Victoria Kosetatino was also ordered to pay full restitution of $9,000 she obtained over a four-month period before her arrest.

Kosetatino and another defendant, Jeremy Tamapolu, worked together to steal checks from vehicles, homes and mailboxes, according to prosecuting Assistant U.S. Attorney Aunnie Steward.

They used the stolen checks at various Anchorage stores and opened bank accounts in other people's names to cash the checks, Steward said.

Court records show Kosetatino finished a state sentence for similar crimes in November 2015 and resumed her criminal activity a month later. Her thefts and forgeries persisted until law enforcement arrested her in April 2016, prosecutors said.

[Feds: One of two Anchorage suspects charged with stealing checks from homes and vehicles still at large]

"At sentencing, Chief Judge (Timothy) Burgess noted that Kosetatino is a serial fraudster that had not been deterred by her prior convictions and sentences for fraud," prosecutors said in a statement.

Tamapolu's trial is set to start in March.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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