Bolingbrook Man Opened Credit Cards In Dead People's Names: U.S. Attorney

BOLINGBROOK, IL — A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted three men, including one from Bolingbrook, for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently open credit cards in the names of recently deceased individuals, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.

Two of the men, who are brothers, are also charged with fraudulently obtaining small business loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and falsely claiming tax credits to which they were not entitled, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Roosevelt Garrett, Torience Garrett and Franklin Simmons schemed to fradulently obtain credit cards in the names of people who had recently died, including two former residents of Illinois, according to an indictment returned in the Northern District of Illinois.

After using the individuals’ personal identifying information to obtain the cards, the Garretts and Simmons made purchases for themselves and did not repay the credit card companies, the indictment states. Simmons and the Garrett brothers also charged the cards to purported business entities that they controlled, allowing them to convert the credit card fraud proceeds to cash, the indictment states.

According to the indictment, the Garretts also engaged in fraud related to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program—a source of relief under the CARES Act. The indictment alleges that in June 2020, the Garretts submitted two fraudulent applications for EIDL loans on behalf of business entities that they purportedly owned and operated.

The applications contained materially false statements and misrepresentations about the businesses, including the number of employees and gross revenues, the indictment states. The Garretts allegedly used the EIDL funds to make cash withdrawals and transfers for their personal use and not for the operations of the businesses.

The tax charges accuse the Garretts of misstating in corporate tax returns the number of employees of the purported entities they controlled, and the wages allegedly paid by those companies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Additionally, Simmons fraudulently underreported to the IRS the income he derived from a business he controlled and which he used in connection with the fraudulent credit card scheme, the indictment states.

The indictment charges Roosevelt Garrett, 57, of Itasca, with four counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, four counts of filing false corporate tax returns, and one count of failing to file an individual tax return.

Torience Garrett, 53, of Bolingbrook, is charged with four counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, four counts of filing false corporate tax returns, and one count of money laundering.

Simmons, 64, of Chicago, is charged with three counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and two counts of filing a false individual tax return.

The defendants were arraigned in federal court in Chicago and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A status hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22, before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman.