Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., 31, is accused of impersonating billionaire Sidney Kimmel, swindling $11 million out of the Hollywood tycoon’s Charles Schwab checking account, after which utilizing these funds to purchase gold cash and the mansion in Buckhead — a plan he set into movement from his cell inside a maximum-security facility in Butts County, Ga., prosecutors allege.
Whereas Cofield was charged in December 2020 with seven counts of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud and cash laundering, a slew of paperwork filed this 12 months within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Georgia shed higher gentle into the flowery scheme he allegedly pulled off with the assistance of not less than two different folks and a few well-hidden contraband cellphones. The brand new particulars — together with the sufferer’s id — have been first reported in an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cofield’s attorneys, Drew Findling and Steve Sadow, declined to touch upon the case when reached by The Washington Put up. Cofield has pleaded not responsible to the costs.
The courtroom paperwork paint an image of an alleged heist that would’ve come out of the “Ocean’s” film franchise — minus George Clooney. But, aside from its cinematic high quality, the scheme Cofield is accused of masterminding epitomizes the ripple results of contraband in prisons throughout the nation, mentioned Paul M. Adee, a corrections skilled at Robson Forensic and retired main with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Workplace in Florida.
“Right here’s the factor: Inmates don’t simply stroll exterior. Somebody introduced that cellphone inside, and that’s one thing that may severely compromise the safety of a facility,” Adee mentioned of the allegations. “Generally it’s guards being bribed, guests bringing stuff in or inmates hiding them by inserting them inside their our bodies.”
On the time of the alleged scheme, Cofield was serving a 14-year jail sentence for armed theft. He’s accused of getting a historical past of accessing contraband telephones — and is going through expenses for allegedly utilizing one in every of them to order a capturing in Atlanta. He has pleaded not responsible. Jail officers say Cofield has been discovered with contraband not less than 12 instances, based on incident studies. In 2016, guards mentioned he advised them he didn’t care in regards to the cellphone that they had discovered on him since he “had tons of of telephones,” based on the incident report.
4 years later, prosecutors say Cofield as soon as once more used a contraband cellphone — this time pretending to be Kimmel, the now 94-year-old government producer behind movies akin to “Loopy Wealthy Asians,” “The Kite Runner” and “Moneyball.” Based on his indictment, Cofield first referred to as Charles Schwab on June 5, 2020. He later managed to bypass the financial institution’s safety measures by getting an image of Kimmel’s driver’s license and a utility invoice, prosecutors allege. He additionally allegedly used a TextNow account to make it appear as if he was calling from a Los Angeles quantity.
Nonetheless pretending to be Kimmel, he allegedly organized to buy 6,106 one-ounce gold cash for a little bit underneath $11 million from the Idaho-based Cash Metals Trade. The funds, prosecutors allege, got here by way of a wire switch from Kimmel’s Charles Schwab account. On June 16, prosecutors say a non-public safety firm employed by Cofield flew the gold from Boise to Atlanta, the place they allegedly met with a person named Eldridge Bennett. Bennett and his daughter, Eliayah Bennett, have since been charged with aiding Cofield. Attorneys for the 2 didn’t reply to requests for remark from The Put up. It’s unclear from courtroom data how the daddy and daughter know Cofield.
As soon as the cash arrived, prosecutors say Eliayah Bennett started home searching in northern Atlanta earlier than deciding on the two-story, six-bedroom home in Buckhead. Based on courtroom paperwork, the house was acquired on Sept. 1, 2020, by Siriusly Sound Home LLC, an organization Cofield owned that was administratively dissolved simply three days earlier than the mansion’s last sale.
Courtroom data present authorities have been tipped off to the alleged scheme on June 10, 2020, when jail workers members seized two telephones from Cofield’s cell: one on prime of his desk and one other beneath Cofield’s proper armpit, based on an incident report. The jail’s forensic unit then started reviewing name logs and textual content messages — in the end uncovering his plot, courtroom paperwork allege.
Virtually two years have passed by since Cofield was indicted. But a slew of questions stay unanswered. It’s nonetheless unclear why Kimmel’s account was allegedly focused. It’s additionally not identified how a prisoner managed to get the contraband telephones prosecutors say Cofield had in his cell.
“This can be a fairly widespread downside,” Adam Meyer, a specialist at Prisonology, an skilled community agency of retired Bureau of Prisons professionals, advised The Put up, explaining that many inmates — or their associates — pay corrections officers to offer them with telephones. “And it actually comes all the way down to guards not being paid sufficient, as a result of it’s a giant sum of money that’s exhausting to show away from once they smuggle the telephones in.”
The Georgia Division of Corrections didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from The Put up. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the company advised the Journal-Structure that the jail system is combating a “every day battle” towards contraband cellphones, that are generally smuggled by way of drones.
As for Kimmel, his account was totally reimbursed by Charles Schwab, Mayura Hooper, a spokesperson for the financial institution, mentioned in an announcement. “As quickly as Schwab was conscious of suspected fraudulent exercise, we launched an investigation, initiated measures to guard the consumer’s account, and notified the authorities. As you’ll be able to recognize, that is an ongoing investigation, and as such, we can not remark additional,” Hooper added.
Within the aftermath of its $4.4 million buy, the multimillion-dollar dwelling in Buckhead was left vacant. Since then, it “has not been maintained and is quickly deteriorating,” and several other crimes have been reported on the property, based on a movement filed final week by prosecutors.
If the decide have been to approve the movement, an actual property agent will probably be “licensed to market and promote” the home — which was valued final valued at $3.5 million in 2020.
