The Russian Identity Theft Case

Attorney Kurt Arbuckle represented a Russian National who lived in Houston and traveled frequently overseas working in the oil industry. This client was usually out of town 3 to 4 months at a time. During one of his trips a professional identity thief found a way to get into his apartment, take over $10,000 from his checking account, live in the apartment, and sell both of his vehicles.

The crook also paid taxes on a house in Fort Bend County with a withdrawal from the victim’s checking account.

Although the thief appeared to have his criminal act together, he was dumb enough to leave cash receipts from Home Depot in our client’s townhome.

Gradoni & Associates Takes the Case

Investigator Keith Kucifer was able to obtain the videotape from the cash register for the transactions which clearly identified a heavy set black male making the purchase.

We also were able to identify the owner of the residence in Fort Bend who had paid the taxes with the victim’s funds. As luck would have it, our man had a rap sheet and his photograph matched the photograph of the man at the Home Depot. As a result of Keith Kucifer’s diligent efforts he was able to find and recover both of the victim’s vehicles.

RESULT OF INVESTIGATION: We are in the process of gathering the huge paper trail on this case together in order that we can pass it on to the various law enforcement jurisdictions for charges to be filed. This case had a lot of stones to turn over but I don’t think we missed many.

Return to the Private Eyes of Texas Newsletter; March 2018

The Russian Identity Theft Case