Naples Man Pleads Guilty To $2.2 Million Online Fraud Scheme

Fort Myers, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Jeffrey Ihm (49, Naples) today pleaded guilty to 14 counts of wire fraud and 5 counts of aggravated identity theft. Each wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and each aggravated identity theft conviction is punishable by a term of two years’ imprisonment, consecutive to the sentence imposed for the wire fraud convictions. The indictment also notifies Ihm that the United States intends to forfeit $315,000 in fraud proceeds previously seized from a Suncoast Credit Union checking account and a house located in Naples, which are alleged to be traceable proceeds of the offense. The United States is also seeking a money judgment in the amount of $2,234,681, representing the proceeds Ihm is alleged to have received as a result of the fraud scheme.

According to court documents, between February 2013 and July 2014, Ihm assumed the identities of and posed as executives of a number of companies, including Roper Industries, Inc., Kinetic Technologies, LLC, CSX Corporation, and Convergence Consulting Group, Inc. He then generated false and fraudulent emails and other documents in the names of the companies’ executives in order to defraud financial institutions, causing them to transfer to him $2,234,681 to which he was not entitled. Ihm used the monies to purchase real property and for other personal enrichment. 

This case was investigated by the Fort Myers Office of the United States Secret Service and the Jacksonville Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Economic Crimes Unit of the Collier County Sherriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David G. Lazarus and Dale R. Campion.