FBI offers reward for escaped Ga. inmate who stole millions in prison
Federal authorities are offering reward money for information on the Georgia man who escaped from prison while serving time for audacious crimes committed on the inside.
Nearly a week after Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. escaped from a federal prison camp in south Georgia, the FBI said Monday it would pay $10,000 for tips that lead to his capture and conviction.
The authorities say Cofield, who was born in Atlanta and still has ties here, should be considered armed and dangerous.
Cofield, 34, was sentenced in 2024 to just over 11 years in federal prison for a daring heist he pulled off from the highest-security facility in Georgia’s corrections system, a case that highlighted how even the state’s most closely watched inmates can skirt prison rules. His story was the focus of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation into systemic failures across the state prison system.
From a prison in Butts County, prosecutors said, he stole some $11 million from the Hollywood film mogul Sidney Kimmel by calling Charles Schwab on a contraband phone and posing as him. He then allegedly used the proceeds to buy gold coins, charter a jet to transport them and purchase a $4.4 million mansion in Buckhead. (Property records show the house has since been sold.)
Cofield later pleaded guilty to charges stemming from allegations that he also ordered a drive-by shooting in southwest Atlanta, again from his prison cell. The state prison sentence he received in that case, which left its victim paralyzed, will begin when his federal prison term ends.
Cofield faces more time in federal custody if he is captured. He has been formally charged with one count of escape from custody, a charge that carries up to five years in federal prison.
In an affidavit filed in federal court, a U.S. Marshals Service deputy wrote that prison officials realized they were missing an inmate during their 4 p.m. headcount last Tuesday. After two more counts, they concluded Cofield was gone, according to the affidavit.
It’s unclear why Cofield was assigned to the prison’s low-security section. According to the deputy marshal’s affidavit, he had been in the facility in Jesup for less than two months before he escaped.
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