RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 30 (UPI) — A federal prison inmate in Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday to a scheme to obtain Swiss bank funds that belonged to Holocaust victims.

John Kenneth Leighnor, 49, admitted one count of mail fraud and three of aggravated identity theft, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Leighnor, who had been scheduled for release in January from the federal prison in Petersburg, Va., faces up to 26 years when he is sentenced in February.

Leighnor was indicted in August.

Investigators said that between 2005 and June 2008 Leighnor searched out obituaries of Holocaust survivors and obtained the numbers of dormant Swiss bank accounts that might have belonged to Holocaust victims. Leighnor allegedly planned to apply for restitution to the Claims Resolution Tribunal, which was set up to examine claims over bank accounts left by Jews who were imprisoned or killed during the Nazi era.

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Source: UPI