Kimbrew

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Beginning in 1996, Kimbrew and several co-conspirators, including Dayne Williams and Damien Springs, began a scheme to defraud computer suppliers: they set up fake corpo- rations and then established lines of credit with wholesale computer supply companies using phony references and falsi- fied credit information.

The fraudulent companies used telephone answering ser- vices in San Jose, California, which would forward calls to the companies’ shell offices elsewhere. The co-conspirators would then return the calls, posing as the phony trade and UNITED STATES v. KIMBREW 5137 bank references. After establishing credit, the companies would place orders for computers, and then resell the comput- ers through co-defendant Nicholas Krallis, but they would never pay the original suppliers.

Kimbrew obtained a driver’s license in the false name of Carlton Cochran and used that identity to set up a bank account into which proceeds from the computer sales were deposited. The Cochran account was used to hold a portion of the funds and to distribute proceeds to Williams and Springs.

In July 1997, investigators arranged for a controlled deliv- ery…