Rice:  Brooklyn Woman Sold Untraceable Phone Access to Prison Inmates

Coates faces identity theft charges, up to 7 years in prison

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a Brooklyn woman has been charged with orchestrating a network of phony telephone accounts that allowed inmates at the Nassau County jail and at least five other correctional facilities throughout New York State, to make untraceable phone calls, all while stealing thousands of dollars in services from numerous phone companies.

Amanda Coates, 25, of Brooklyn, has been charged with two counts of Identity Theft in the First Degree, Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, three counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, and three counts of Theft of Services. She faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.  Coates was arrested in Brooklyn Wednesday by DA Investigators.  She is scheduled to be arraigned this morning in First District Court, Hempstead.

Rice said that between May 2008 and June 2009, Coates used stolen identities to set up numerous telephone accounts with various telephone service providers. Then, after setting up a telephone account’s call-forwarding service, she would sell the account information to inmates at the Nassau County Correctional Center and other correctional facilities. Coates charged each inmate $195 per month for access to the phone line, taking on new inmates as customers through a word-of-mouth network across the state.

The scam unraveled when an Investigator from the District Attorney’s Office posed as an inmate, opened an account with Coates, and purchased various blocks of telephone time. This sting operation, in conjunction with AT&T, Cablevision, Verizon, and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, led to the identification of Coates and the execution of a search warrant at her East New York apartment yesterday.

Those inmates would then be able to call the number on the account they had purchased, which would then automatically forward their call to a predetermined number the inmate wished to conceal. That second number would be unknown and unseen on jail telephone records. All phone calls made by inmates at the jail are recorded. Since this scheme allowed the call recipient’s identity to be disguised, the inmate would be able to openly discuss ongoing and future criminal activity without fear of exposing their co-conspirators’ true identities to law enforcement.

“The danger in this crime is that these inmates could be talking to anybody about anything, and investigators going through call logs would have no idea,” Rice said. “This scheme created a significant danger to corrections officers, fellow inmates, and the general public.”

Rice added that inmates could possibly use the phone information to intimidate witnesses in trials, or speak to family members or friends about intimidating witnesses.

“We have to ask ourselves why an inmate would want an anonymous phone line,” Rice said. “Who are they talking to? What are they trying to hide?”

Rice said that after Coates opened a telephone account, she would make no payments until the phone company eventually shut it down. The true number of the accounts Coates set up will not be known until the investigation is complete. Likewise, the monetary loss to the phone companies will not be fully known until the investigation is complete, but may reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition to the Nassau County Correctional facility, Coates sold phone information to inmates at Bare Hill, Franklin, Riverview, Collins, and Auburn correctional facilities.  Rice said that authorities believe that Coates has been operating the scheme for a number of years, though they won’t know the exact scope of the crime until their investigation is complete.

Assistant District Attorney William Jorgenson of the DA’s Public Corruption Bureau is handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.