I-Team: Inmate: Jury Scam Generated "Millionaire" Money
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- By: Randy Travis
Aired: Aug 23 2016
ATLANTA, Ga. -
That familiar phone scam threatened arrest by federal marshals if you don't pay for supposedly missing jury duty or a tax return deadline.
But the only real federal marshals in this story were the ones who took a former Georgia inmate to prison for his role in stealing an estimated $1 million from people across the country.
Reggie Perkins was from Atlanta, bouncing between selling drugs and suffering the criminal consequences. His last stop was Autry State Prison... where he became the main guy to help hide all that phone scam money.
"I could probably be a millionaire if I saved all that money." he told FBI agents in a recorded interview before his arrest. "No questions asked."
A millionaire living inside a gated community. Prison. A supposed place of punishment where every inmate seemed connected with the outside world.
"Out of the 90 people I could say 65 of them had a phone," Perkins remembered, describing his cell block. "And they had a backup phone in case the police got that phone."
Inmates paid guards up to $1000 for those smuggled cell phones to pull off a variety of crimes, often reading scripts like ones we spotted during a raid at Autry earlier this year. They pretended to be from the IRS or law enforcement, demanding money because you didn't pay your taxes or missed jury duty. And if you don't pay, the cops are on their way.
"On the chain gang there's so many ways to make money," Perkins explained to agents. "It's illegal on the streets."
It's illegal everywhere. But once inmates hit on a successful phone con, they share it with other prisoners. Other prisons.
"And those victims can be especially tragic, especially heartbreaking in the reaction they have to these calls," stressed John Horn, US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. "The fear that they have when they think someone is going to come and arrest them."
Perkins detailed how much time inmates spent scamming over the phone.
"Every day. Every hour."
Authorities said inmates ran Autry like a true criminal organization with Perkins serving as the key money launderer. He told FBI agents he had 100 women scattered across the country willing to take pre-paid card numbers provided by the victims and swap them for new cards. After keeping a cut for themselves, the women would rely the new numbers back to Perkins who would pass them to other inmates. Ultimately, the money would go to friends and family members of the inmates who pulled off the scam.
Just one of those women admitted laundering more than $23,000 in prepaid cards. Iesha Bell was sentenced to home arrest.
"My talk game is so good you think I'm on the street with you," Perkins bragged. "You feel so comfortable with me that you're going to believe me. You're going to do anything I ask."
But the FBI shared a secret with Perkins. They had been listening all along.
"It was so easy for us to listen to every phone call coming out of Autry because you were all in one place," one of the agents explained.
After a two-year investigation, federal authorities indicted 46 former and current corrections officers on a variety of corruption charges, most of the crimes possible only with smuggled cell phones.
Perkins talked to the FBI at his job after he had already been paroled from Autry.
"I know I wasn't doing nothing wrong by me talking to some girls and helping them out," Perkins tried to justify. "if that's a crime then I'm sorry."
It's a crime all right. He eventually pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Federal judge Steve Jones called Perkins' crimes mind-boggling. He sentenced people to prison, the judge told the court, because he's trying to remove that danger to society, not realizing the danger was still there. He sentenced Perkins to 12 years and 7 months in federal prison, hoping this time the danger is finally removed.
Meanwhile, the calls continue from all those others supposedly confined to their cells, paying their debt to society.
"I think honestly to say there's been a definitive reduction to the amount of contraband, I don't think we're able to say that's occurred yet," admitted US Attorney John Horn. "What we can say through this case is shed some light on this issue and brought some publicity to it."
Over the next few weeks, dozens of other defendants will also be sentenced for their role in a crime that can only be successful if someone sneaks a phone into prison, and someone like Perkins finds people willing to help process those pre-paid cards.
FULL STORY: www.fox5atlanta...
How exactly do you get someone to believe that they owed taxes or are responsible to pay a debt without even knowing their full name to address them by?
Some people are stupid asf.. people give me their info every day I've made at least 200k from my crib
Being locked up is the worst feeling you will ever feel, besides losing someone you really love now that's the worst.
One time I ordered a Diet Coke and they brought me a Diet RC Cola. That was the worst feeling you will ever feel. To this day I can't trust Spirit Airlines.
12 years? A slap on the wrist for stealing millions from old people mostly.
Stingray was definitely used
He needs to visit from Buster.
DAMN good reporting!!
WOW....glad they put those cops who took those phones in the jails in the slave prison system for this scam. SMH.
Cons are actually using from the inside to worse actually not ok when we definitely have boot camps for rehab but also I'm not negotiating within
Wow
Obama phones, EVERY ONE OF THEM...
Damm!!