Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that Bryant T. Johnson, aged 26, of Albany, Georgia entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on June 17, 2015 before the Honorable W. Louis Sands, Senior U. S. District Court Judge, in Albany.
In March 2012, a juvenile in the Dougherty County School System was interviewed about the theft of 65 “Student Emergency Contact Cards” from a local high school personnel office. The cards contained identity data, including date of birth and Social Security numbers, of students and were recovered from his backpack. The juvenile admitted that he had talked about using the stolen cards with Mr. Johnson. A search warrant of Mr. Johnson’s home recovered evidence which linked him to 62 online federal income tax returns linked to him via e-mail, hard copy address, or other data. The filings claimed a total of $419,028. Mr. Johnson actually received a total of $76,631. The police also seized numerous pre-paid debit cards in the name of 3rd parties that were funded with fraudulent income tax refunds.
Read more of this press release from the United States Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Georgia.
More background on this case can be found in this media report.