A Georgia inmate used contraband cell phones to assume the identity of California billionaire Sidney Kimmel, according to last week’s bombshell report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Arthur Lee Cofield Jr., the 31-year-old inmate, stole $11 million from Kimmel’s bank account by convincing customer service reps at Charles Schwab that he was the 94-year-old billionaire. Cofield then wired his stolen funds to a company in Idaho, exchanged it for one-ounce gold coins, chartered a private plane to fly those coins to Atlanta and then bought a $4.4 million house with the help of two accomplices.
Kimmel, worth an estimated $1.5 billion, was not the only billionaire targeted by Cofield, according to prosecutors. Nicole Wertheim, spouse of billionaire inventor Herbert Wertheim, also lost $2.25 million. “Mr. Cofield has figured out a way to access accounts belonging to high net worth individuals, frankly billionaires, located across the country,” said Scott McAfee, a federal prosecutor, at a December 2020 bond hearing.
It’s not clear how many billionaires Cofield targeted. (The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Georgia declined to comment.)
What is clear: Fraudsters can make a lot of money by play-acting as billionaires. Beyond the famous Willie Sutton line about why he robbed banks—”because that’s where the money is”—scams can be directed at marks who may have heard of wealthy people but may not have enough familiarity with them to tell…
