Three men, including two brothers, are accused of stealing people’s identities to buy high-end jewelry.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that from March 2023 to July 2023, Anthony Limas, Johnny Nicklas, and Steve Randy Nicklas stole the identities of 13 people using driver's license numbers, passport numbers, and alien registration numbers
“The suspects posing as these individuals use these illegally obtained documents to open the lines of credit at the high-end jewelry stores and Harbor Freight stores and make the expensive purchases,” he said.
Authorities say the suspects carried out their scheme in seven California counties, including Los Angeles, where Sheriff's Chief Detective Joe Mendoza says three people were victimized.
“The fraudulent credit accounts were then repeatedly used by the suspect at different stores across the counties and other states,” he said. “That total loss in our investigation was approximately $51,000.”
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Bonta added that the stores tipped authorities off to the scheme.
“They were aware that people were coming into their store…that they were opening up credit lines under other IDs, maxing out the credit lines that their store provides, and then not paying them,” he said.
Bonta added that there could be more victims out there.
The men are facing 34 felony counts, including retail theft and identity theft.
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