Chicago Man Sentenced To 134 Months In Prison

HAMMOND – Gemico Childress, age 45, of Chicago, Illinois was sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge James T. Moody for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Kirsch. 

Mr. Childress was sentenced to 134 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $181,835.77 in restitution to various financial institutions and retailers.

“The sentence that Childress received today reflects the seriousness of his crimes,” said United States Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II.  “Childress left his victims scrambling to clean up their credit and fix their financial reputation.  My team of law enforcement officials will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute identity theft schemes. ”

According to documents in this case, this scheme involved the theft of the personal identifying information of victims in more than 10 states and Canada.  Childress and co-defendants stole some of the victims’ information from a hospital in Arizona.  The stolen records included birth dates, social security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, employment information, insurance carriers, treating physicians, and information about the people the victims listed as emergency contacts.  Childress and others opened fraudulent credit cards, bank accounts, and retail credit accounts on-line.  In some instances, Childress added himself as an authorized user on “real” accounts held by victims. 

The case was the result of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Toi Denise Houston.

###