LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A homeless man who goes by the nickname “Million Dollar,” was sentenced to four years in federal prison Monday for purchasing more than half a million dollars worth of luxury goods in a fraudulent credit card scheme.
Trace Jevon Jones, 33, who prosecutors described as a transient living in Downtown Los Angeles when he was arrested in 2019, pleaded guilty in September 2020 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Jones was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. to 48 months in prison and to pay $521,128 in restitution to American Express.
From at least November 2016 to July 2018, Jones masterminded a scheme to fraudulently obtain and use American Express credit cards for unauthorized purchases at luxury stores, according to prosecutors.
Jones enlisted co-conspirators to obtain the credit card information and other personal identifying information of American Express account holders, prosecutors said. Jones and crew then used this information to trick American Express to send out replacement credit cards in the victims’ names, prosecutors added.
Jones and his co-conspirators used the fraudulently obtained credit cards to buy luxury bags, shoes, jewelry, and other goods from high-end retail stores such as Barneys, Goyard and Gucci in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa, prosecutors said.
“This was not a one-time event or an isolated lapse of judgment,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “[Jones] participated in this scheme at least as early as November 2016, and then coordinated numerous purchases with five co-conspirators between May and July 2018, many of whom he recruited. Further, while the ultimate victim here was American Express (because it reimbursed the individual victims), stealing and misusing victims’ PII and account information is a serious nationwide problem that can have lasting impact on individual victims.”
Four other defendants have been sentenced in this case including 40-year-old Terry Ellis Jr. of Chino, and 32-year-old Davion Raymone Ellis of Eastvale, who are serving federal prison sentences of two years and three years, respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft charges in this case.
Cherelle Daire Beal, 31, of Eastvale, and 31-year-old Miranda Clare Hensley of Las Vegas, were given credit for time served and were ordered to serve three years of supervised release.
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