Miami-Dade County Resident Pleads Guilty to Unauthorized Possession of Stolen Identities

Miami-Dade County resident pled guilty to unauthorized possession of stolen identities.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Paula Reid, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Brandon K. Jenkins, 23, pled guilty to one count of possession of fifteen or more unauthorized access devices (social security numbers of other people), and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, on March 18, 2014, the IRS and USSS executed a search warrant at a residence where law enforcement discovered and recovered over 3,000 items (papers, notebooks, etc.) that contained personal identifying information (PII) of various individuals. Located in the bedroom where Jenkins was sleeping was an envelope that had “Mr. Brandon K Jenkins” written on the front. Inside the envelope was a wallet that contained a Social Security card in the defendant’s name, other documents in the defendant’s name, three debit cards in the names of other individuals, and five “Student Selection Form Cards” containing the names and social security numbers of other individuals.

A latent print analysis of documents recovered from the residence revealed 29 of Jenkins’ fingerprints on documents containing PII. Jenkins’ fingerprints were also found on a piece of paper containing the name, date of birth, and social security number of another person who had a fraudulent income tax refund filed in her name. Jenkins lived at the target residence and participated in filing fraudulent income tax refunds from that residence until the execution of the search warrant.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 10, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. At sentencing, Jenkins faces up to ten years in prison for the access device charge, and a mandatory term of two years in prison, consecutive to any other term in prison, for the aggravated identity theft charge.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI and the USSS. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brooke C. Watson and 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.