Ex-Workforce Services employee pleads guilty in ID theft case

A former employee of the Utah Department of Workforce Services has pleaded guilty to charges accusing her of stealing personal information of clients to obtain credit cards in their names.

Laura Bustamante, 34, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City to a charge of unlawful access of a protected computer and aggravated identity theft. Federal prosecutors said she accessed Workforce Services computers to steal the identities of 33 people. Some of that information was given or sold to a pair of co-defendants in the case, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah said.

Bustamante faces up to seven years in federal prison when she is sentenced on Dec. 15.