MIAMI — After a City Furniture credit card with the stolen identity of a man in Torrance, California, was approved, a woman in Miami went shopping, according to deputies.
Read more South Florida teacher sought to ‘bait’ students ‘into sending nude pictures,’ feds say
Leer en español
The purchases at a City Furniture store in Hollywood were delivered to a townhouse at the InTown Apartments in Little Havana, according to deputies.
Ashley Almeida had also used someone else’s identity to lease the townhouse at 1900 SW 8th St., according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy’s arrest report.
Detectives started investigating fraud in April after Synchrony Bank reported stolen identities were behind several City Furniture credit card accounts.
Kevin Kattoura, a City Furniture employee in Oakland Park, had “submitted” 10 of the applications, and “received commission payments for the fraudulent sales,” a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy wrote, according to an arrest report.
Broward deputies arrested Kattoura, 44, on Tuesday and corrections booked him at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.
Miami-Dade deputies arrested Almeida, 47, shortly after 6:10 p.m. on Thursday after she arrived at the townhouse with the furniture, according to deputies.
Read more Small plane crashes on psychiatric hospital campus near North Perry Airport; 2 hospitalized
Corrections booked Almeida shortly after 11:05 p.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She appeared in bond court on Friday.
Kattoura faced charges of second-degree grand theft, computer crime to defraud, obtain property by fraud, and creating, possessing, or using a fictitious identity. His bond was $20,000.
Broward County Circuit Judge Francis Viamontes was set to preside over Kattoura‘s case.
Almeida faced charges of fraudulent use of identification, third-degree grand theft, and organized fraud. Her bond was $5,001.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda was set to preside over Almeida’s case.
