LOS ANGELES, CA – A Southern California woman with a long history of fraud and identity theft has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, authorities announced.
Maria Christina Hendricks, 53, pleaded guilty in May 2023 to possession of unauthorized access devices and aggravated identity theft, following her February 2019 arrest in which she was found with:
52 stolen Social Security numbers
58 bank and credit account numbers
179 pieces of stolen mail
According to prosecutors, Hendricks used one stolen identity to open a Wells Fargo account, which she used for unauthorized purchases and withdrawals. She was also ordered to pay nearly $7,000 in restitution.
Hendricks — who has used aliases including Maria Johnson, Gia Hendricks, and Maria Hainka — has been convicted of fraud-related crimes since 1997, serving prison time in Washington, Torrance, and Los Angeles County.
In a prior case in 2016, authorities said Hendricks used dating and rental websites to meet victims, gained access to their homes, and stole financial information to open credit lines. She was known to live a lavish lifestyle, staying in luxury hotels and charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims’ accounts.
At the time of her 2016 arrest, she was staying at a high-end resort in Santa Barbara, having spent over $250,000 of victims’ funds. She was sentenced in April 2024 to another three-year term in that case.
Hendricks has a criminal record spanning nearly three decades, with charges including grand theft, credit card fraud, and impersonation. At one point, she posed as a modeling agency owner and a member of NASCAR’s Hendrick Motorsports family.
In a letter to the court before her latest sentencing, Hendricks expressed remorse:
“At 53 years old, I finally had to break all the way down to start picking myself back up… I need help, and I’ve sought it.”
