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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, Donnell Young, Acting 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 that Kevin Cimeus, 21, of Miami, was sentenced before Judge William J. Zloch to 156 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
On June 20, 2014, Cimeus was convicted 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).
According to records filed in this case and statements made in court, federal agents found over 2,400 social security numbers and names of real people stored on thumb drives, laptop computers, iPad, and Cimeus’ email account at Cimeus’ residence. 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 online 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, IRS-CI, and the SSA. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gera R. Peoples and Cynthia Wood.
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.