Thirteen people from San Antonio, almost half of them former employees of a company that processes child-support payments for Texas and 15 other states, have been charged with diverting thousands of dollars of those payments to themselves.

Federal and state authorities arrested 11 of the suspects Monday, charging them with taking advantage of an $18.2 million contract the state has with Affiliated Computer Services to issue debit cards to Texans who are due child support.

Agents with the Secret Service and the Texas attorney general's office were searching for the other two suspects.

According to six indictments unsealed Monday, the suspects diverted some of the debit cards to friends, relatives or associates and used them to buy things for themselves. At least $275,000 might have been wrongly diverted from child support payments, though ACS and the attorney general's office said the company, which was recently acquired by Xerox, has reimbursed the victims.

The indictments say the 13 acted in separate but similar schemes devised by six people who worked for ACS' call center in San Antonio: Jose Arnoldo Serrano, 30; Christina Aguirre, 32; Irene Gomez White, 35; Mary Jane Urbina, 52; Leticia Robles, 40; and Rosie Shular, 30.

Between October 2008 and June 2010, the indictments say, the six inappropriately accessed the ACS computer system, obtained client information and sent debit cards to addresses of their choosing or shared the stolen information with associates so that they could call in, impersonate child-support recipients and get debit cards sent to them.

The other suspects are Maria Guadalupe Sandoval, 36; Maria del Puerto, 32; Clarita Hernandez, 58; Jeanette Solano, 31; Carla Garcia Cervera, 41; Crystal Vigil Cervera, 29; and Kandie Pope, 26.

All but Crystal Cervera and Serrano were arrested Monday. Seven of the other suspects were released on unsecured bond after court hearings Monday. Solano and Aguirre were scheduled for hearings today. Pope and Shular were being held pending hearings Wednesday.

The indictments include charges of mail fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, the suspects face a maximum of up to 20 years in prison.

Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two years in prison on top of whatever they might get on the other charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Moore said.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the agency “acted quickly to ensure ACS provided full payment to the affected child-support families.”

ACS said it could not comment on the ongoing investigation but that it worked closely with law enforcement to identify those involved and will assist in their prosecution.

“Most importantly, no child-support recipients were denied benefits,” spokesman Ken Ericson said. “The affected cardholders have been notified and are receiving free credit monitoring to ensure their protection, and we have also reviewed and upgraded our internal security procedures. The debit card system continues to be safe and reliable, and ACS is proud to serve more than a quarter-million cardholders in Texas.”

ACS recently moved its local operations into a building that housed the Port San Antonio headquarters. The company has plans to hire about 300 workers over the next 18 months to add to its 500-plus employees now.

The City Council last year approved a $300,000 incentive to keep ACS from moving its operations out of San Antonio.

ACS said last year that it processes more than $8.5 billion in child-support payments every year through state contracts.