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Press Release
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Thomas Caul, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of Inspector General, announce the conviction of Kevin Cimeus, 21, of Miami, after a four day jury trial in Fort Lauderdale for his roles in identity theft tax fraud and social security schemes.
Specifically, Cimeus was convicted of ten counts in the superseding indictment, including one count of conspiracy to steal government property or money, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, three counts of theft of government money or property, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641, one count of access device theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3), and five counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1). Sentencing is scheduled for September 4, 2014, before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch. At sentencing, the defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to five years in prison on the conspiracy count, ten years in prison on each of the theft of public money and access device theft counts, and a mandatory consecutive two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft counts.
On January 23, 2014, Cimeus pled guilty to one count of access device theft and one count of aggravated identity theft. At his sentencing hearing on April 22, 2014, the Court vacated this guilty plea based on statements made by the defendant during the hearing.
According to evidence presented at trial, during a search warrant of Cimeus’ residence, federal agents found over 2,400 social security numbers and names of real people stored on thumb drives, laptop computers, iPad, Cimeus’ email account and sheets of paper. The evidence at the trial also showed that Cimeus recruited Miami Dade College (MDC) students to allow the defendant to use their Higher One Bank accounts to receive fraudulently obtained tax refunds and that Cimeus used his own Higher One Bank and Chase accounts to receive fraudulently obtained tax refunds. Cimeus filed at least one thousand tax returns from two IP addresses. He also used the two IP addresses to access the Social Security Administration’s web site and create on line profiles for social security recipients in order to re-route the victims’ social security payments to other accounts.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of FBI. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gera R. Peoples.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.