Man Convicted for Using Stolen Identities to Attempt to Defraud Various Financial Institutions of More Than $1.7 Million Dollars

Memphis, TN – After a six-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court, a Memphis man has been found guilty as charged of using stolen identities to defraud over 100 individual victims and various financial institutions of more than $1.7 million dollars. In addition, he was found guilty on two counts of tampering with government witnesses. D. Michael Dunavant, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the convictions today.

According to the indictment, Jeremy Jones, 39, of Memphis, executed a scheme to steal the identities of personal acquaintances, car dealers and over 145 Memphis Neurology patients throughout 2011, 2012 and 2015. Jones used this identifying information to apply for loans and credit cards and open bank accounts in the individuals’ names without their knowledge. A co-conspirator, who was employed at Memphis Neurology, removed patient information from the company’s database and provided it to Jones upon his request. Jones agreed to compensate the co-conspirator for providing him with this information.

Jones sent and received loan applications, checks and other financial information from numerous lenders throughout the United States via the internet and mail carriers. The potential loss is $1.7 million.

On February 16, 2016, Jones was originally indicted on individual counts of conspiracy to commit identity theft and mail fraud, and separate counts of identity theft, mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft. On October 3, 2017, a superseding indictment added two additional counts of obstruction of justice for tampering with two government witnesses.

The sentencing hearing is set for March 8, 2018. The maximum prison sentence for conspiracy is 5 years; the maximum prison sentence for identity theft is 5 years; and the maximum prison sentence for mail fraud is 20 years. The maximum prison sentence for aggravated identity theft is a mandatory penalty of 2 years imprisonment consecutive to any other sentence imposed. For the obstruction of justice charge, the maximum sentence is 20 years.

"Identity theft and financial fraud of this magnitude and scale by the defendant has victimized hundreds of people by compromising their personal and private information for his own selfish and unjust enrichment, and I am pleased that we have been able to hold the defendant accountable and achieve justice for the victims. I want to commend the good investigative work done in this case by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Secret Service, and I want to recognize the outstanding prosecutorial efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Damon K. Griffin and Murre Martindale in presenting this complex case to the jury on behalf of the government," said U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant.