ST. GEORGE — A Hurricane man accused of opening several credit card accounts he reportedly used to purchase thousands of dollars in merchandise has been charged with multiple counts of identity theft.
Max Perkins Stern, 34, was charged June 30 with four third-degree felony counts of identity fraud and one misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a financial card following an incident reported in St. George.
The monthslong investigation began last November when a woman called police and reported suspicious credit card activity, according to charging documents filed in support of the arrest.
The woman said she became suspicious after receiving bills from several credit card companies with whom she did not have accounts, as well as letters informing her that her applications for credit had been denied, applications she said she never submitted.
According to the report, she began to suspect it was Stern, a man she claimed stole money from one of her cards in the past, who had filled out these fraudulent accounts.
In December, she received a voicemail from a credit card company informing her of suspicious activity on an account she never applied for and didn’t know existed.
She said she discovered Stern had gone to a retailer and made purchases that matched items she later found on her credit card statement, the report states. This confirmed her suspicions it was Stern who opened the fraudulent accounts.
Officers went to this retailer and obtained multiple receipts from purchases made using the victim’s account. They reviewed credit card applications containing the complainant’s personal information except for the phone number, which was Stern’s former landline number from where he previously resided in Louisiana.
Police say a forensic analysis revealed that the accounts were set up from a Hurricane residence, where Stern used to live and the same address he reportedly used on one of the applications, along with the complainant’s personal information.
Officers found several online purchases at another retailer using a credit card under the name of the reporting party. The items were shipped to Stern’s address, while another account was under the victim’s name with Stern as an authorized user.
Additionally, a TV was purchased and shipped to an address in Covington, Louisiana, where they learned Stern’s mother lived, according to the report.
Detectives in St. George were informed June 30 that Stern was located and detained in Washington City and they responded to the Police Department to conduct an interview.
Stern reportedly denied making a number of the purchases and said he did charge a few of the items but only at the request of the complainant. When asked about the TV that was shipped to Louisiana, Stern said the transaction never went through and he thought it was canceled, the report states.
Investigators say the evidence convinced them that Stern used the complainant’s personal information to open several credit accounts, which he used to purchase more than $3,700 in merchandise.
Less than a month before the current charges were filed, Stern had completed 12 months of bench probation on a case filed in 2021 involving the theft of an estimated $83,000 in cash deposits stolen from a restaurant in Springdale, as previously reported by St. George News.
According to charging documents filed in support of the arrest, officers learned that Stern, a former manager of the restaurant, allegedly had stolen multiple deposits over the course of several months, starting in February of that year.
Investigators obtained documentation indicating that starting in February 2021, more than 50 bank deposits did not include any of the monies made from cash sales, currency the report alleges was taken by Stern.
Britt Ballard, Springdale Police officer and department spokesperson, told St. George News in an interview at the time of the arrest that the report triggered an extensive investigation that detectives had worked tirelessly on for days, efforts that included undercover surveillance operations, multiple requests for search warrants and records subpoenas.
Following an extensive investigation, investigators say they recovered cash in both large and small denominations during a search of Stern’s residence and suspected Stern had a great deal of money “stored away.”
Stern was arrested and charged with 10 third-degree felony counts of theft that were later reduced to misdemeanor offenses in June of last year in exchange for a guilty plea. He was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution and was placed on 12 months’ bench probation during a hearing held June 9, 2022.
Less than a month after he was released from probation Stern was arrested on the St. George case.
Following his arrest on June 30, Stern was booked into jail on $10,000 and was released on July 3 after posting a bond. He made an initial appearance in 5th District Court on Wednesday.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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