A US prisoner is accused of using a concealed cellphone while in his cell to plan a $11 million swindle.
On June 8, 2020, a caller identifying himself as Sidney Kimmel, a philanthropist and billionaire film producer, informed brokerage Charles Schwab that he had uploaded a wire disbursement form utilising the service’s secure email service.
The call appeared to originate from a prison, which was the only issue. However, the caller brought up his wife’s earlier that day request for a transfer verification, a part allegedly played by a female co-conspirator.
Three days prior, on June 5, 2020, the person allegedly masquerading as Kimmel had phoned a Schwab customer service agent about opening a checking account and been informed that a form of identification and a utility bill would be necessary.
A co-conspirator is said to have given Kimmel’s driver’s licence image and a Los Angeles Water and Power utility bill on June 6.
The Northern District of Georgia US Attorney’s Office filed court records [PDF] stating that the uploaded documents were a fraudulent letter of authorisation and a request for money to be wired to an outside bank, both of which claimed to be signed by Kimmel.
On June 9, the brokerage transferred $11 million from Kimmel’s Schwab account to a Zions Bank account for Money Metal Exchange, LLC, an Eagle, Idaho-based seller of gold coins and other precious metals, confident that Kimmel had been suitably validated.
The actual Kimmel was unaware of the deal, which led to the acquisition of 6,106 American Eagle gold coins. Aboard June 13, 2020, the person accused of organising the fraudulent coin transaction allegedly hired a private security company to fly the coins from Boise, Idaho, to Atlanta, Georgia, on a chartered aircraft. The coins were allegedly taken three days later by a fraudster’s associate.
According to the authorities, Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., the alleged mastermind, was imprisoned the entire time in a maximum security facility in Butts County, Georgia. In addition to being charged with attempted murder in Fulton County, Georgia, Cofield is now serving a 14-year term for armed robbery.
Not exclusively for family members, prison phones
Prison guards allegedly searched Cofield’s cell the day after the coins were bought and found a blue Samsung mobile tucked under his arm. By matching the phone number with calls made to Money Metals Exchange, the jail forensic squad supposedly discovered that Cofield had been using an account on the free voice and texting service TextNow.
