Ex-NY Fed worker, brother get prison for ID theft

* Ex-Fed worker gets 40 months prison, brother 57 months

* Identifications stolen to obtain student, boat loans

By Jonathan Stempel and Kristina Cooke

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - A former Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee and his brother were sentenced to prison on Thursday after they pleaded guilty to running an identity theft scheme in which they stole data from the central bank.

The brothers, Curtis Wiltshire and Kenneth Wiltshire, used the data to apply for more than $450,000 of student loans and $525,000 of loans to buy boats and recreational vehicles, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Curtis Wiltshire, 35, a former information and technical analyst at the New York Fed, to 40 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit $200,000.

The judge sentenced Kenneth Wiltshire, 41, to 57 months in prison, and ordered him to forfeit $525,160 and pay about $1.02 million in restitution.

Castel called the theft from the New York Fed "a special breach of trust."

Kenneth Wiltshire had pleaded guilty in September to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, while Curtis Wiltshire pleaded guilty the following month to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The New York Fed discovered the theft in February 2009, when an investigator reviewing a data drive attached to Curtis Wiltshire's computer found two fake student loan applications, and a driver's license containing a New York Fed worker's photo that did not match the printed name.

Both defendants live in Staten Island, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York.

Their arrests were announced in April 2009. If convicted, they could have each faced more than 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.

The case is U.S. v. Wiltshire et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-cr-00485. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Kristina Cooke, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)