Career Identity Thief Sentenced to Over 19 Years in Federal Prison

ATLANTA - Kamali Rives was sentenced to 19 years, six months in federal prison on fraud and identity theft charges.  Rives and his co-conspirators ran multiple fraud and identity theft schemes that ultimately stole over $2 million.

“Rives made his living for years by victimizing hundreds of people,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “He used the stolen identities to open bank accounts and write checks in other people’s names, as well as taking out loans and making purchases on phony credit cards.  He ultimately had no regard for the financial hardships he caused the people whose identities were stolen.”

Thomas Noyes II, U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge of the Charlotte Division stated, “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service will continue to go after those who use the U.S. Mail to defraud the American public.  This case demonstrates the importance of cooperation among our law enforcement partners to pursue those individuals who insist on  defrauding unwitting victims by stealing their identities and attacking their personal well-being.”

“This case illustrates the negative impact that bank fraud and identity theft have on the citizens of the United States.  The sentence imposed today should be a reminder that the Secret Service, in conjunction with our law enforcement partners, will continue to arrest criminals who violate innocent victims and threaten our financial systems,” said Malcolm D. Wiley, Sr., Acting Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Atlanta Field Office.

According to U.S. Attorney Horn, the charges and other information presented in court:  Rives and co-defendant Rashon Bohannon, 34, of Lilburn, Georgia, ran multiple fraud and identity theft schemes for many years, dating back to at least 2010.  Rives and Bohannon maintained hundreds of files that contained “profiles” of their victims.  These profiles included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, bank information, credit card numbers, and credit reports.  They used this information to open bank accounts, cash checks, take out loans, manufacture credit cards, and make credit purchases. 

In one of the schemes, Rives and Bohannon conspired with Jimia Fannin, 36, and Ashley Posey, 31, both of Atlanta, Georgia, to steal corporate checks from Bank of America.  Fannin was employed by Bank of America in its lockbox unit, where her job was to process checks that had been mailed to post office box numbers assigned to Bank of America corporate clients.  As part of processing the checks, Fannin was supposed to post them as deposits to the appropriate Bank of America accounts.  Instead, Fannin stole numerous checks and gave them to Rives and Bohannon. 

Rives and Bohannon then recruited “runners,” including Posey, to open checking accounts at other banks in Georgia and deposit the checks.  The defendants opened the accounts in the names of corporations that were similar or identical to the payee corporations on the stolen corporate checks. 

Rives and Bohannon also used the information obtained from the stolen checks to access the bank accounts held by the account holders who had written the checks.  The defendants called the banks and changed the customer information, including the addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers, for the customers’ existing accounts.  After changing the account information, Rives and Bohannon withdrew money from the victims’ accounts for their own use. 

The defendants stole over $2 million in this bank fraud scheme alone.

Rives also maintained an office in College Park, Georgia, where he conducted credit card fraud.  In November 2013, officers from the College Park Police Department executed a search warrant at the office space after an individual claimed he had been held against his will there and pressured to engage in identity theft.  The officers went to location, and after smelling marijuana and seeing evidence of drug and identity theft activity, obtained a search warrant.  Inside, they found abundant evidence of identity theft, including hundreds of counterfeit credit cards, a credit-card-manufacturing machine, numerous files with credit card information (purchased from illicit Internet web sites), and other documents with personal identifiers.

At the sentencing, the government introduced evidence that Rives continued to engage in credit card fraud and identity theft even when he was placed in pretrial detention on the federal charges.  He used fraudulent credit cards to transfer money to inmates’ commissary accounts in the detention facility.  Rives then purchased commissary items and received payments from other inmates from the accounts.

Kamali Rives, 37, of Riverdale, Georgia, was sentenced by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr., to 19 years, six months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $602,388.32.  Rives was convicted on these charges on December 16, 2015 after he pleaded guilty to a 23-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, bank fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. 

Bohannon, Fannin, and Posey are scheduled to be sentenced on March 9, 2016 before Judge Thrash.

This case is being investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and United States Secret Service.  The College Park Police Department and the Hapeville Police Department provided valuable assistance in the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorney Stephen H. McClain prosecuted the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.