IDENTITY THIEF SENTENCED TO PRISON AND RESTITUTION

Chadrus Laquardra Brown Just the Tip of the Fake I-D Iceberg

Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announces the conviction today of 31-year-old Chadrus Laquardra Brown of Atlanta on identity theft charges. Brown was found guilty of one count of identity fraud, three counts of forgery and four counts of theft by taking, following a four day trial that began Monday. Assistant District Attorneys Jill Hollander and Christopher Toles presented evidence that Brown used the websites of legitimate credit services to access the credit reports of their customers. He then produced fraudulent identification documents and applied for loans from a number of money lending or loan businesses. Operating in four counties (Fulton, Cobb, Coweta and Dekalb), Brown stole 42-thousand-dollars using the names of unsuspecting victims.

Immediately following the guilty verdicts, Fulton County Judge Marvin Arrington sentenced the defendant to 20-years with 12 to serve; the remainder on probation. Because this is Brown's third felony conviction, under Georgia's Recidivist Act, he must serve all of the prison time. Judge Arrington also ordered him to repay the money he stole….and ordered the credit bureaus to remove the false information Brown created from the victims' credit records.

District Attorney Paul Howard says "this is just the beginning of an even more complex and involved case." Indictments are forthcoming for a number of co-conspirators and the D-A's office expects to contact as many as 60 victims across the country. Some still do not know their identities have been stolen.

Fulton County D-A Investigator E. P. Sliz and white collar crime units from other jurisdictions are continuing the investigations.

CONTACT: Lyn Vaughn, 404-730-6860 (office); 404-533-1381 (pager)