$2.2M online fraud, identity theft scheme involved Jacksonville victims, DOJ says

Jeffrey Ihm sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A man was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in federal prison for a $2.2 million online fraud and identity theft scheme involving victims in the Jacksonville area, officials said Monday.

A judge also ordered Jeffrey Ihm, 49, to pay restitution to financial institutions including Wells Fargo Bank, CIT and Key Equipment Finance, officials with the Department of Justice said.

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Ihm, of Naples, “assumed the identities of, and posed as executives of, a number of companies” between February 2013 and July 2014, officials said. He then generated fraudulent emails and other documents in the names of the companies’ executives in order to defraud the financial institutions, causing them to transfer $2,234,681 in his name.

Ihm used the money to purchase a house, among other expenses, according to court documents.

The court also ordered Ihm to forfeit $315,000 of fraud proceeds taken from a Suncoast Credit Union checking account.

Investigators traced Ihm’s cyber trail to some computer equipment associated with his name in Naples. Victims were in Jacksonville and Sarasota.

The Jacksonville Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was one of the many agencies that worked on the case.