After a City Furniture credit card with the stolen identity of a man in Torrance, California, was approved, a woman in Miami went shopping, according to deputies.
Deputies said the purchases were made at a City Furniture store in Hollywood and delivered to a townhouse at the InTown Apartments in Little Havana.
According to an arrest record from a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputy, Ashley Almeida also leased the townhouse at 1900 SW 8th St. under someone else’s name.
Detectives began investigating theft in April after Synchrony Bank revealed that stolen identities were behind multiple City Furniture credit card accounts.
According to an arrest record, Kevin Kattoura, a City Furniture employee in Oakland Park, “submitted” 10 of the applications and “received commission payments for the fraudulent sales,” as written by a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy.
Broward deputies arrested Kattoura, 44, on Tuesday and booked him into the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.
Miami-Dade deputies detained Almeida, 47, shortly after 6:10 p.m. on Thursday, after she arrived to the townhouse with the items.
Corrections arrested Almeida just after 11:05 p.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She appeared in bail court on Friday.
Kattoura was charged with second-degree grand theft, computer crime to defraud, obtaining property by fraud, and creating, having, or utilizing a fake identity. His bond was $20,000.
Kattoura’s case was scheduled to be heard by Broward County Circuit Judge Francis Viamontes.
Almeida was charged with fraudulent use of identification, third-degree grand theft, and organized fraud. Her bond was $5,001.
Cristina Miranda, a Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge, was set to rule over Almeida’s case.
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