Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his wife were the victims of an elaborate identity theft scheme, said an AP report. After Bernanke's wife'e purse was stolen last August from her chair at a Capitol Hill Starbucks, the couple's checking account was swept up into a larger scheme, said the AP report. George L. Reid of Washington has confessed to depositing checks from the Bernankes' account.

In a statement, Bernanke said that identity theft affects millions of people each year and that his family was one of 500 separate instances traced to a single crime ring.