I previously wrote about a woman who had her identity stolen by the feds so they could catfish her friends and associates.
The Drug Enforcement Administration set up a fake Facebook account for Sonia Arquiett, who was arrested in a cocaine case, in order to lure her friends to reveal “incriminating drug secrets.” The feds claim that Arquiett consented to the ruse because she “implicitly consented by granting access to the information stored in her cellphone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in … ongoing criminal investigations.”
The case has a new development, namely the Department of Justice has settled with Arquiett to the tune of $134,000 for stealing her identity. Identity theft is a crime but not when the federal government does it and can pay off its victims with taxpayer money. The DOJ doesn’t “have” money, it has money collected from citizens in the form of taxes. You are, literally, paying for these kinds of shenanigans.
The settlement was revealed in court papers Tuesday, after a judge referred the case to mediation.
Arquiett sued the government last year and the DOJ initially defended the practice but later recanted its defense. For now.
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