Georgia inmate commits $11M fraud by impersonating Sidney Kimmel from INSIDE PRISON!
BUTTS COUNTY, GEORGIA: Arthur Lee Cofield Jr, a former gang member, is accused of stealing money from the uber-rich film producer, Sidney Kimmel. The inmate pulled the heist while being incarcerated in a maximum security facility. Cofield, who is serving a 14-year sentence for armed robbery, stole $11 million (£9.8 million) worth of money from Kimmel's fund.
Kimmel, whose production company has produced films such as 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'Moneyball,' is valued at $1.5 billion (£1.3 billion), and Cofield was able to take Kimmel's money by using illegal phones to steal his identity. This heist, in which the inmate accessed Kimmel's assets and withdrew a lump sum from his account, is currently considered as one of the largest ever successfully carried out in a prison.
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Cofield subsequently spent the cash on an Atlanta home worth $4.4 million (£3.9 million). Speaking about this situation, Daily Star reported Byung J 'BJay' Pak's legal counsel stated in December 2020, "Some prisoners aren't interested in rehabilitation or paying their debt to society."
Pak added, "The allure of millions of dollars in gold, coupled with contraband prison cellphones, allegedly was enough for Cofield to commit a brazen million-dollar fraud scheme from the confines of his prison cell." In June 2020, Cofield allegedly managed to get his hands on a number of Kimmel's identification documents, giving him access to one of the billionaire's online accounts.
Cofield was then successful in opening a checking account in Kimmel's using his driver's license and a utility bill, along with assistance from a co-conspirator outside the prison. He then purchased 6,106 one-ounce American Gold Eagle coins for an outrageous $11 million (£9.8 million) and even organized for a private security crew to fly the gold to Atlanta on June 13, 2020, according to court testimony.
The American Gold Eagle coins allegedly belonged to Eldridge Maurice Bennett, 65, and his daughter Eliayah Bennett, 27, who are Cofield's co-defendants. In response to the charges of money laundering and conspiring to conduct bank fraud, all three have entered not-guilty pleas. Cofield is reportedly also charged with attempted murder after allegedly instructing gang members to kill one of his romantic rivals from prison, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). Consequently, in 2021, after serving his sentence for an armed robbery, he was transferred from a state jail to federal custody.