Miami-Dade man used student names in $560,000 fraud. He later worked at another college
Two Miami-Dade men getting sentenced to federal prison after stealing identities for a $563,210 tax fraud may come off as just another tricky day in fraud-laden South Florida.
What’s different about Maurice Marcellus and Ludrick Joseph’s scam: The identities were from students at the defunct ATI College of Health, where Marcellus worked. And, since then, Marcellus appears to have worked in the admissions office of another local college, which would give him access to the same student information.
One database says Marcellus worked as a professional admissions representative at the Hialeah campus of Florida Career College as recently as 2018. When the Miami Herald phoned the Hialeah campus last week and asked for Marcellus, who isn’t in federal custody yet, the reporter was told Marcellus was out to lunch. The reporter left a message.
Last week, Miami Gardens resident Marcellus got five years, two for aggravated identity theft and three for possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices (personal identity information), served consecutively.
North Miami Beach resident Joseph got a four-year sentence on the same charges, two years for each., two for aggravated identity theft and two for possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
They’re jointly responsible for the $563,210 restitution to the IRS.
Marcellus managed a used car sales lot in Tallahassee among his jobs before being an academic advisor at ATI College of Health in Miami Gardens. ATI’s campus closed in 2012. Also closed in 2012, at least on paper, was Marcellus’ Miami Gardens business, Capital Financial Management.
Before ATI closed, according to Marcellus’ admission of facts, he snagged names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of over 2,000 students. Investigators found that information on a digital spreadsheet in Capital Financial Management.
From 2012 to 2014, Marcellus and Joseph used those names to prepare and file federal tax returns for people who gave them no such permission to do so. That’s how they pulled in the $563,210.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 10:06 AM.
