Myrick Beasley, of Las Vegas, Sentenced in $1.4 Million ID Theft Scheme

Beasley assumed the identity of at least 148 legitimate businesses nationwide, and used those stolen identities to obtain, on credit, at least $1.4 million in goods and services from various victims. 

Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – Myrick Clift Beasley, 56, of Las Vegas, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for mail fraud in connection with a scheme to obtain goods and services on credit using the stolen identities of legitimate, inactive businesses, according to announcement by Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Paul M. Abbate, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department.

According to court documents, from 2010 through 2015, Beasley assumed the identity of at least 148 legitimate businesses nationwide, and used those stolen identities to obtain, on credit, at least $1.4 million in goods and services from various victims. 

Beasley admitted that, as part of the scheme, he would identify inactive, legitimate businesses that had previously been located in office buildings where virtual office providers were also located.  Beasley admitted that he would assume the inactive businesses’ identities by renting virtual office space in the buildings in the names of the legitimate businesses, creating internet domain names and email addresses in the identified businesses’ names, obtaining phone numbers previously identified with the businesses when available, and, at times, supplementing state corporate filings and commercial credit records with fraudulent information designed to further the scheme. 

Beasley admitted that he concealed his true identity throughout the fraud by using false names and paying for the costs of operating his scheme with prepaid debit cards.  Once he would assume a business’s identity, Beasley admitted that he would then order goods and services — particularly, smart phones, computers, and other electronics — from retailers on credit and have the items shipped to the virtual office location, which would then, at his direction, re-ship the items to rented mailboxes elsewhere in the country.  Beasley admitted he would then retrieve the items from the rented mailboxes and sell them.

Beasley has a history of using his skills to commit fraud. He was convicted for mail fraud in 1989 and again in 1999.