On Thursday, it was announced that a 35-year-old man from Houston, Texas had pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and a single count of aggravated identity theft. From approximately July 27, 2016 to May 19, 2017, Amir Ali Bey was involved in a scheme to obtain money, cars and other luxury items by using the identities of others. The defendant created several aliases, including the name Daniel Isaiah Murray, to create credit profiles that remained under his ownership and control.
The defendant then used these credit profiles to apply for lines of credit and to obtain cash. To create some of the profiles, the defendant stole the identifying numbers of children. Then, he would link the stolen Social Security numbers to his name or to another alias under his control, by adding them as authorized users on existing credit card accounts.
This allowed the defendant to create a profile and credit history for the names with the credit reporting agencies. To carry out the scheme, Bey also used fraudulent drivers’ licenses and fake pay stubs. He also rented mailboxes at UPS stores using fraudulently obtained identifications. Law enforcement officials carried out a search of Bey’s apartment in May of 2017.
During the search, they discovered numerous fraudulent identification documents, credit cards, bank statements, and other items used to carry out the wire fraud scheme. The plea was accepted by United States District Judge Kenneth Hoyt. The defendant is now scheduled to be sentenced on March 19, 2018. At the time of sentencing, Bey will face a maximum of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and a mandatory 24 months for the aggravated identity theft.
Additional details can be found here.