It is considered a safety issue to have a cracked or broken windshield. Which makes it necessary for a policeman to site a driver with a cracked windshield for an obstructed view. But it is never a routine stop when it comes to pulling over a fraudster with a broken windshield. When a Delaware County Sheriff stopped Anthony Jermaine Robinson and Kiana Fina Alphonse for a cracked windshield, that Sheriff cracked open a $10 million fraud case. Robinson and Alphonse weren’t just on a joy ride. Based on a probable cause search (which means something besides the windshield wasn’t right), the Sheriff found counterfeit social security cards and driver’s licenses during the stop.
Starting in 2019, Robinson and Alphonse stole the personally identifiable information (PII) of multiple victims. Using the stolen identities, the pair then obtained counterfeit driver licenses, purportedly from the states of Washington and Delaware. The counterfeit driver licenses contained the PII of the victims, but a photo of Alphonse. Using the PII, and the Social Security numbers of the victims, the counterfeit driver licenses, and documents created for fictitious businesses, Alphonse visited multiple banks and set up fraudulent business bank accounts in the name of the various victims. These bank accounts were then utilized as part of a scheme to defraud multiple other victims involving the online purchase of nonexistent cars. Once the bank accounts received funds from victims, Robinson, Alphonse, and co-conspirators withdrew the funds for their own personal use.
It was the phones found in their car that sealed the guilty conviction for Robinson and Alphonse. The Sheriff found that Robinson’s cellphone contained text messages between himself and Alphonse on instructions on how to fraudulently set up business accounts at banks using “fraudulent documents for non-existent businesses, identification documents and Social Security numbers.”
Shout out to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office on the safety stop. These two could have kept driving.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Georgia man and woman to serve time in federal prison for detailed scam” published byJacksonville News and Talk on August 9, 2023
A federal court in Jacksonville sentenced Anthony Jermaine Robinson, 31, Covington Georgia, to 42 months in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard also sentenced co-defendant, Kiana Fina Alphonse, 29, Covington, Ga., to 36 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, false representation of a social security number and aggravated identity theft.
