Metro Detroit Group Busted In $28M Cellphone Scheme Across U.S.: Feds

Detroit MI

07 September, 2022

3:49 PM

Description

METRO DETROIT — Seven people from Metro Detroit are in trouble after federal officials said they stole the identities of hundreds of people and used their names to defraud dozens of AT&T and Apple stores across the U.S., according to a criminal complaint from the Eastern District of Michigan. The group called themselves, "Clear Gods," and consisted of Emmanuel Luter, Joseph Ingram, Dominique Barnes, Donnell Taylor, Delano Bush, Dalontae Davis and Joseph Motley, according to the complaint. All of them are from the Metro Detroit area, prosecutors said. Each of them were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and 25 counts of aggravated identity theft, a two-year felony, according to the complaint. The group began the scheme as early as June 2017 and ran it through at least September 2019, resulting in more than 26,000 fraudulent transactions and a loss of more than $28 million, prosecutors said in the complaint. The group stole the personal information and identities from websites that sold batches of victim IDs, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other data, prosecutors said. They then used that information to set up accounts, upgrade lines and acquire the electronic devices, such as iPhones on credit, prosecutors said. Later on in the scheme, the group shifted to a "common name" method, in which the group used names similar to the one's used in the conspiracy, so they could skip having to use a fake ID card, prosecutors said. "Setting up accounts and upgrading lines in these 'common names' eliminated the needs for fraudulent identification cards, due to the similarity between the names of the victims and the coconspirators," prosecutors said in the complaint. Throughout the scheme, the group also bribed sales workers for their employee log-in credentials and even threatened some with violence for their information so they could set up new accounts and alter existing accounts, prosecutors said in the complaint. After stealing the iPhones and other electronic devices from stores across the country, including in Novi and Dearborn, the group would prepare to sell them by erasing the information they used to acquire the devices in the first place, hence the name, "Clear Gods," prosecutors said in the complaint. "These types of crimes are often mislabeled as victimless, which could not be farther from the truth," Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Detroit Angie Salazar said. "Oftentimes victims of fraud are required to spend many years clearing up financial issues and fixing incorrect personal identifying information caused solely by the greed of these criminals."