Tekia Jones, 37, of Hallandale, and Ivory Covington, 29, of Miami, each pleaded guilty in federal court in Florida to one count of access device fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3), and one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1). Sentencing is scheduled for June 24, 2014 before U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas.
According to court documents, Jones was an employee of a national fast food restaurant chain and had access to employees’ names, social security numbers and dates of birth, but did not have permission to possess the employees’ information outside of her employment. On March 10, 2013, during an inventory search of a car driven by Covington, but shared and controlled by Covington and Jones, 118 names, social security numbers and dates of birth were found that belonged to former and current employees of this national fast food restaurant chain, along with two GreenDot Visa prepaid debit cards.
Not surprisingly, the press release cited above from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida does not name the national restaurant chain, but inspection of court records on the case reveals that it was the Steak and Shake chain, who reportedly confirmed and would have testified that all the 118 individuals whose data were found were current or former employees.
The court filings also indicate that Jones and Covington used the employees’ information to file 57 fraudulent tax returns for a refund fraud scheme.
Correction: previous version incorrectly linked to an uninvolved firm.