A Sandy Springs man is in Fulton County Jail, charged with more than 100 counts of identity theft, after police investigating the odor of burning marijuana discovered much more than pot in the man’s apartment, authorities said.
The incident occurred last Wednesday. Keinan Nelson Chapman, 28, gave officers permission to search his residence, and police discovered "evidence of forgery and fraud, documents lying about the apartment," Sandy Springs police Lt. Steve Rose told Channel 2 Action News.
Investigators spotted a notebook containing people’s names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and PIN numbers, as well a Social Security card and birth certificate in one person’s name, and a TurboTax Visa debit card in another’s, according to a police report.
Chapman allegedly admitted that he had obtained personal data from a website that sells individuals’ account information, and had filed as many as 30 tax returns in other individuals’ names this year and had gotten about $30,000 in refunds for about half of them, police said.
“[Chapman] used TurboTax and he filed a large number of tax return in other people’s names,” Rose said. Then, Rose said, “he set up a bunch of mailing addresses, post office boxes for TurboTax so that the returns would be mailed to this box.”
Chapman also admitted using specialized equipment to fraudulently alter and replenish Visa gift cards, police said. He then allegedly used the cards to buy thousands of dollars of clothing, and sold some cards to other people.
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