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Office of Consumer Affairs Dismantles Organized ID Fraud Ring

April 27, 2007

Atlanta, GA – Criminal investigators from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) and special agents from the United States Secret Service (USSS), working in conjunction with members of the Atlanta Police Department, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, have shut down a major fake ID and counterfeit check manufacturer and made several key arrests in an identity fraud ring that operated up and down the East Coast from Florida to New Jersey for several years.

Starting with data breaches at an Atlanta-based health care facility and a well-known check-processing company, investigators traced the crime to the top, where they uncovered an underground facility that manufactured counterfeit checks and fake IDs, including driver’s licenses, student ID cards and fraudulent employee identification cards, which were used by the group and supplied to other fraud rings.  On a single computer confiscated in the seizure investigators discovered over 2,400 Photoshop files of completed fake IDs, among which were driver’s licenses from Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, California and many other states.  Other equipment seized included cameras, identification card printers and professional grade check printers.

Investigators have made over ten arrests so far, including that of alleged ring leader Christopher Shawn Pope, aka “Tuna”, who is charged with racketeering.

The 10-month investigation that led to the recent arrests began with the apprehension of a healthcare facility employee who is alleged to have stolen confidential client information (names, addresses, dates of births, social security numbers, and bank account numbers) that she obtained from the company’s database.  The employee allegedly sold that information to a woman who, in turn, passed it along to a runner in exchange for fake checks and corresponding fake IDs.  The woman and her “crew” allegedly used the fake IDs to purchase merchandise, some of which would later be returned for gift cards or cash.

Tracing the source of the compromised information and counterfeit checks and IDs led to the discovery of an affinity group called the House of Milan.  Some members of this and other similar social organizations are part of a small criminal subculture in which individuals support their lifestyle through fraud.

The investigation of the members and structure of the organization eventually linked to a high-ranking figure currently being sought for an outstanding racketeering warrant and to a top man of the fraud subculture himself, Christopher Shawn Pope, aka “Tuna”.

“The impact of this case is tremendous,” pronounced Joe Doyle, Administrator of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.  “By taking down the major players at the top of the fraud supply chain, you put a lot of identity thieves out of business.”

This is the third counterfeit ID manufacturing scheme that OCA and the US Secret Service have exposed in the seven-week period beginning March 7, 2007.  The investigation continues, and additional arrests are expected.