Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced a 639-count indictment of 15 individuals in connection with a $600,000 pickpocketing and identity theft ring which compromised at least 60 accounts at various bank branches in New York City.
The defendants are Arthur Franklin, Joseph Simms, Vincent Franklin, James Mannix, Kathleen Miller, Carol Dibitetto, Larry Ford, Kandra Lysland, Tina Barboza, Mary Bennett, Yvonne Harris, and three unidentified woman and one unidentified man. Each of them has been indicted on multiple felony charges, including grand larceny, identity theft, criminal possession of a forged instrument, conspiracy, scheme to defraud, attempted grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between October 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009.
The investigation leading to the indictment began when a fraud investigator at Chase Bank discovered what appeared to be unrelated fraudulent bank transactions at various Chase branches. While viewing surveillance videotape of these transactions, the investigator noticed that the transactions primarily were conducted by women wearing wigs, hats, and glasses. In addition, although different women were carrying out the transactions, one man, Arthur Franklin, regularly was present in the bank and appeared to be monitoring the person conducting the fraudulent transaction. Franklin stood out because he often was dressed as a construction worker. In a couple of instances, he wore a doctor’s uniform, including a stethoscope. Further review of the surveillance videos revealed that defendants Joseph Simms and Vincent Franklin also supervised the fraudulent bank transactions. Chase Bank determined that the victims of these transactions had all reported having been pickpocketed or having lost a wallet or bank documents.
Defendants Miller and Mannix were employed at a collection agency in Harrisburg, PA. Both had access to Accurint, a computer program through which personal identifying information can be obtained, including addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, and telephone numbers. Although Miller and Mannix were authorized to conduct only work-related searches and were not permitted to share any information obtained with anyone outside of their workplace, at Franklin’s request, they both allegedly conducted searches to obtain personal identifying information of pickpocket victims, including social security numbers, and sold that information to Franklin.
Franklin allegedly then provided the stolen identification information, financial documents, and personal identifying information of the victims, to other defendents, who, in turn, dressed up like the pickpocket victims, trying to match each victim’s appearance as closely as possible using, in some instances, a wig, hat, glasses, and makeup.
Source: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office